Sermons of Rev. C.H. Spurgeon ...

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•I

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON

CHAM HADDON $mm

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WITti ANECDOTAL REMINISCENCES

G. HOLDEN PIKE

AUTHOR OF *" TBX AOMANCB OF THB STRBBTS," BT&

i^»^

INTRODUCTION BY

WILLIAM CLEAVER WILKINSON

AND CONCLUDING CHAt>T£RS BY

JAMES C. FERNALD

>»»»^»^^^^M^^»»*M»

FUNK A WAGNALLS OOMFAJTr

NXW YOBK AVD LOXDOV

Ooypright, 1899, by Um
fUNX ft WAGNALLS COBiPANT.

INTRODUCTION

By Professor W. C. Wilkinson, D.D.^

In every human generation there is a certain
small number of picked men concerning whom
public interest, beginning early, continues long to
be so general and so vivid that everything pro-
ceeding from them, everything said about them,
everything connected with them, is sure to engage
the attention of mankind. Of this select class of
men belonging to our generation, by eminence was
Charles Haddon Spurgeon. It thus happens that,
during many years, Mr. Spurgeon's biography has
been, as it were, constantly written up to date, in the
current periodical literature of his time. At his death,
nothing, or almost notnmg, remained of new to be
told respecting him. There had long been simply
the day's, or the week's, or the month's, addition to
be made to the biographical bulletins that promptly
advised an ever curious public what was the last
thing of note that had befallen the foremost

* Requested by the publishers of the present work to famish a
brief general estimate of the genius, character, and career of
the illustrious subject, I sought and obtained from the cour*
tesy of the editors, respectively, of 7'Ae Examiner, and 7>i#
Independent (New York), permission to adopt and incorporate^
in what I might write, parts of two articles, which I bad con*
tributed to these Journals, one on occasion of Mr. Spufgeoo's
fiftieth birthday, and one on occasion of his death.

iv Introduction.

favorite preacher of the present time. This, how-
ever, is fully true only for Mr. Spurgeon's equals or
superiors in age. A whole generation has grown
up since he began to be famous, and, to the mem-
bers of this new community of minds, the story of
his career will be as novel as it is certain to be
interesting.

In seeking some adequate expression for the
imposing phenomenon presented in the life and
labors of Spurgeon, I have myself been accustomed
to distribute the mass of his achievement into
three parts, and thus to find him by a threefold
title deserving to be considered a truly great man.
If he had never done anything but preach as he
preached, he would assuredly remain, to all future
time, one of the most commanding names that
illustrate the annals of the nineteenth Christian cen-
tury. For more than the full third of a century, he
stood confessed, upon the whole, easily the first of
contemporary preachers. His was indeed a sudden
shooting up into the zenith, as of a meteor that
might suddenly go out. But he took his station and
held it steadily like a fixed star. The flash that
surprised us was not a flash, but only the instan-
taneous beginning of a brightness to burn and to
shine. A luminary, not a meteor, was the preach-
ing eloquence of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Noth-
ing less meteoric, nothing more solar, in its quality
of radiance, has ever been set by God among the
merely human and uninspired lights of the world
to shed illumination on any Christian age. Church
history will always have to reckon Mr. Spurgeon as

Introduction.

B. m

one of the greatest preachers of all times and of all
climes. Such is his indefeasible heritage of fame
as a preacher.

If, now, one were to disregard the thousands ot
sermons (in sober literal count, more than 3,200)
from Mr. Spurgeon's tongue that, during his life,
went into print, and were multiplied, each into un-
counted numbers of copies— if, I say, one were
to set all these aside and consider only what, apart
from these and in addition to these, Mr. Spurgeon
accomplished as a writer and maker of books, one
would still have to acknowledge that, in the capa-
city of author alone, this fecund genius did enough
to g^ve him unchallenged rank among the most
luccessful literary men of his generation. I must
take no room here for statistics, but I may men-
tion, by way of sufficient illustration and argument
that his John Ploughman's Talks has reached a sale
pf 320,000 copies, while of a sequel, published a few
fears since, 100,000 copies have been sold. Each
luccessive book of Mr. Spurgeon's — ^a considerable
list the full number would make — would, I am
jure, be accounted a marked publisher's success!
60 much for the literary part of Mr. Spurgeon's
famous work.

But, once more, Mr. Spurgeon might never
either have preached or have written, and yet, had
he — could this be supposed possible — done nothing
but found, establish, organize, administer the sev-
eral great public institutions over which he pre-
sided, and to which, if one may so speak after the
manner of men — he gave the breath of their lif<

Introduction.

that work by itself, justly estimated, would entitle
the prime human motor in it to be ranked a man
of genius. Look at the church of the Metropolitan
Tabernacle. Count out, as a thing not to be
brought into the present comparison, that amaz-
ing missionary church in Ongole, and I suppose
this to be by odds the largest Protestant church
proper in the world. The exact present numbers
are a little short of 6,000 members, and what a spec-
tacle of organization and organized activity it
presents! What a mother of churches it has been!
Occasionally the pastor, in the full career of his
ministry, would request the regular attendants and
seat-holders to absent themselves from a preaching
service, that the " unreached " masses of London
population might have room to swarm in and fill the
monster Tabernacle. Then hardly six or eight per-
sons — and these amiably overcome/perhaps, by their
half unselfish curiosity and joy to behold the ani-
mating sight-^out of all the thousands that heard
Mr. Spurgeon Sunday after Sunday, would be pres-
ent What discipline of love, and obedience, and
self-denial! Then there, too, is the College for Pas-
tors — ^an institution beyond, far beyond, anything
in this respect to be paralleled with it, the creation
of one brain and heart And the Orphanage! And
the Colportage Society! These organizations, I
repeat it, with their already assured wise adminis-
tration and abounding fruitfulness, would alone
be a great and enduring monument to the name of
their founder and chief manager.
Now roll the three, great preacher, great author,

Introduction. vii

great organizer, into one, and the result is a man
for human nature to be — what shall we say? —
proud of? — no; for the man is Charles Haddon
Spurgeon — say rather to be glad of, to be unspeak-
ably thankful to God for. " It is not, it is not,*'
we seem to hear Mr. Spurgeon himself in almost
pained deprecation say it — " it is not man's great-
ness, but God's grace."

In the physical man, Mr. Spurgeon's voice was
his chief good fortune in endowment. But that
good fortune would nigh have compensated for the
lack of every other. The wonder of Mr. Spurgeon's
voice g^ew upon me the more I considered it and
compared it. He used it without any apparent ef-
fort, and it answered every purpose of his wilL In its
utmost violence, I never heard from it one note that
grated harshly on the ear. It was virile, but it hid
in its virile sweetness an effect of womanly winning-
ness that was almost pathetic. In the mere matter
of making people hear, Mr. Spurgeon accomplished
with his voice feats probably never surpassed, I
doubt if ever equaled. I was told, and I believe,
that in Agricultural Hall, in London, a place de-
scribed as being like unin closed space for vastness,
he made himself distinctly audible to 12,000 peo-
ple. It is even credibly affirmed that, in the Crys-
tal Palace, at Sydenham, he spoke, and was every-
where perfectly audible, to an assembly of 20,000
people. His voice, when he was speaking so as to be
heard by such a number, would be no less agree-
able to those persons nearest him than to those
farthest removed, and hardly less distinct to those

viii Introduction.

farthest removed than to those nearest It was ao
instrument of speech that either needed no man*
agementy or was so perfectly managed that it
seemed to need none. It was the perfection of
nature; or else the perfection of both nature and
art.

The thing most obvious and most striking in Mr.
Spurgeon's mental endowment was his preternat-
ural command of language, both vocabulary and syn-
tax. For simple, lucid flow of appropriate speech,
so uninterrupted and so easy that it seemed like
lubricity itself become vocal and expressive, I never
heard anything anywhere that even approached
Mr. Spurgeon's habitual discourse. Mr. Beecher
was great at this point ; but he had fits of greatet
and less, was eruptive, sometimes explosive. Mr.
Spurgeon never faltered. He never went faster
than he wished to, for fear that if he went slower
he might come not to go at all. He never went
slow because he could not go faster. The fountain
flowed because it was a fountain, and the nature
of a fountain is to flow. Of course I describe
what appeared. Doubtless Mr. Spurgeon had his
subjective experiences of mental obstruction ; but
his frank, manly, womanly way was to make his
hearers confidants of his moods, by telling them
outright when his chariot wheels were driving
heavily. No speaker was ever more sure of the
sympathy of his hearers.

Perfect mastery of his own system of doctrine
was another secret of Mr. Spurgeon's power. Per-
fect mastery of it, and perfect conviction of its

Introduction. ix

truth, went hand in hand together with him. He
never stood before his hearers like a reed shaken
with the wind. He stood solid on the rock, with
the whole balanced weight of his great personal*
ity.

The doctrine itself that he taught had the
immense advantage of being a doctrine that could
easily be made intelligible to average minds. And
average minds composed the audience to which
Mr. Spurgeon addressed himself. The character of
mediocrity wrote itself legibly, unmistakably, over
the aspect of the Tabernacle congregation. I say
this to Mr. Spurgeon's praise. His church was
essentially a mission church occupying mission
ground. All the unequalled influence as a minister
of the gospel that Mr. Spurgeon attained, he
attained, let this be forever remembered to his
honor, in the service of a church made up of '' not
many wise, not many noble." What his preaching
did was to present to such hearers the one un-
changing gospel of Christ in countless changes of
form, each perfectly level to the comprehension of
all. He turned and turned the kaleidoscope of the
sermon, and exhibited to his hearers, never weary
of beholding, the same precious truths over and
over again, Sunday after Sunday, in displays that
had nothing new to recommend them but the end-
lessly new combinations of things old that the
magic of the preacher could produce. If the same
combinations even were sometimes repeated, that
did not make the pleasure of seeing them pall in
the least upon the appetite of the beholders. The

Introduction.

achievement was magnificent, of a magnificent aim
*-to preach the gospel to the poor.

It would be a capital omission not to make
note of the blithe humor that enlivened the earnest
temperament of Mr. Spurgeon, and broadened
and quickened his touch with the people. This,
and an instantaneous alertness of mind in him that
served every useful purpose of wit, stood him
many a time in good stead on oratoric occasions.
These two qualities of his subsisted in a noble
basis of Saxon common-sense, and, together with
that, saved him remarkably, throughout his life,
from serious practical errors.

The fundamental attribute, alike of his talent
and of his character, was a magnanimous simplic-
ity. His conduct and his speech were uniformly
such as seemed comportable with the straightfor-
wardness, the honor, the sense of personal respons-
ibility, proper to a Christian gentleman.

But the thing to me most remarkable of all,
about this remarkable man, I have thus far purposely
reserved. It was not his magnificent gift of
eloquence, that steady unfailing river of utterance,
that winning, manly, pathetic voice, like a silver
trumpet, like a flute, like an organ. It was not the
inexhaustible fertility of his productive literary
genius. It was not the matchless resource of organiz-
ing, sustaining, administering strength and wisdom
that he displayed. It was no one of these things by
itself, and not all of these thingfs in their rare
union and harmony. It was something other and
higher. The most remarkable thing about Mr

Introduction. xi

Spurgeon was this : the absolute, simple, single
fidelity maintained by him throughout, maintained
unintermittingly, from the juvenile beginning to
the culminating maturity of his work — the serene,
unperturbed, untempted fidelity of mind, of heart,
of conscience, of will, of all that was in him, and
all that was of him, to the mere and pure,
unchanged, unaccommodated New Testament gos-
pel of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day,
and forever. That stands up and out, that lifts
itself and is eminent, like a peak of the Himalayas,
high regnant over all the subjected high table-
land of this noble character and life. Blessed be
God for it! There is comfort, there is strength
left for us even yet, now that he is gone, in
the backward contemplation. Look up at him.
The wrinkled sea beneath him was crawling with
its little waves of scientific guess, of new theologic
shift and statement, of finical culture seeking to
replace Christian ethics with pagan aesthetics.
How, seen from that sun-bright, immovable summit
of the gospel, the contorted sea beneath of human
wisdom must have looked vain and small! Well
might Christendom take part in celebrating with
solemn joy the jubilee that struck its hour abroad,
heard over all the world, in the fiftieth birthday of
this faithful man of God. " It may be," Mr. Spur-
geon at that time said of himself, '' it may be, that
we are only in mid-voyage,*' adding, " May that
voyage end in landing our freight in port, and not
as some life passages have terminated, namely, in
M ut*er wreck of every hope !"

xii Introduction.

Somewhat farther on than '' in mid-voyage ** it
proved that Spurgeon was» when he wrote those
touching, prayer-laden words. But nothing of
what he meekly so deprecated befell him to darken
the end. All was peace and hope, triumphant over
pain. With what heightening of the tine sense
conveyed in Milton's words about Samson Agon-
istesdead^we may apply those words to Spurgeon!

^ Nothing Is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast ; no weakness, no contempt*
Dispraise, or blame ; nothing but well and fair.
And what may quiet us in a death so noble. **

That for Spurgeon himself. But for us that
survive him ! Alas, we feel how much light, how
much warmth, how much life, as of a sun, withdrew
from the world that Sunday night with the going
hence of Charles Haddon Spurgeoa

CONTENTS

Introduction iii

I. Mb. Spuroeon's Early Datb 3

II. Reminiscences of Waterbeach 29

III. The First Sundays in London 67

IV. Personal Reminiscences 89

V. Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc 121

VI. Some Special Occasions 169

VII. Two Thousand Printed Sermons 195

Vni. The Preacher's Reward — ^Anecdotes About the

Sermons 219

IX. Mr. Spxtrgeon's Books 261

X. The Book Fund 269

XI. Reviews in "The Sword and the Trowel" . . 289

XII. CoNCLUDiNo Thoughts and Reminiscences . . . 315

Xni. Last Scenes and Last Sermons 367

iOt. SPURGEOIPS BARLT DAYX

* I wiO aik any sensible man, above all, any senous Christian beze,
«irhetber there have not been certain tiroes in bit life when he could
moit distinctly see that indeed God did 'choose his inheritance for
him * ? . . . I do not know whether all of you can go with me here ;
txit I think yoa must in some instance or other be forced to see that
God has i nd eed ordained your inheritance for you. If you cannot,
I euL I can see a thousand chances, as men would call them, all
woridof together like wheels in a great piece of machinery, to fix me
JiMt where 1 am ; and I can look back to a hundred places where, if
OOB ct those little wheels had run away— if one of those Uttle atoms
tai the great whiripool of my existence had started aside— I might
have been anywhere but here, occupying a very different position. If
yoo cannot say this, I know / can with emphasis, and can trace God*ff
hand back to the period of my birth through every step I have taken ;
I can feel that indeed God has allotted my inheritance for me. If any
^ you are so wilfully beclouded that you will not see the hand cf
Qod la your being, and will insist that all has been done by your wiU
without Providence ; that you have been left to steer your own course
across the ocean of existence ; and that you are where you are because
your own hand guided the tiller, and your own arm directed the
rudder, all I can say is, my own experience belies the fiict, and the
experience ct many now in this place would rise in testimony agalmt
yoo, and say, * Verily, it is not in man that vralketh to direct his steps.'
— * Man proposes, but God disposes ; ' and the God of heaven is not
WMCCUpied, but is engaged hi over-ruling, ordering, altering, working
an things according to the good pleasure of His wilL"— rA# Nmt Pmk

M

MR. SPURGSOirS XARLT DATS,

ANY hands have tried to do what I shall
certainly not attempt in this volume— -to
write the life of Mn Spurgeon* To accomplish
such a task would be as impossible to-day as it
will be in the future. No great man can be
worthily preserved on paper — ^not even by the
most perfect Boswellian mode of treatment ; and
what the Pastor has been heard to threaten
he will do» should he ever be approached by a
first cousin of Johnson's biographer, may well
intimidate the boldest member of that inqubitive
tribe. I am not a Boswell ; I am not a bio-
grapher. I shall not impertinently pry behind the
scenes of private life to annoy a worthy family on
the one hand, and to gratify a morbid public
curiosity on the other hand. All that is purposed
to be done iS| to produce a series of sketches
different from anything which has» as yet^4>een
put together in a volume, and which shall bo

4 Early Days.

sufficiently true to life not to mislead outsiders,
and not to shock the sensibilities of friends.

In case any reader should need them for
reference, I shall, in this opening chapter, put
down a few commonplace facts such as are
widely known and are everybody's property. Mr.
Spurgeon was bom at Kelvedon, in Essex, on the
19th of June, 1834 ; and, as the world is fond of
comparing the events in the life of one great man
with those belonging to the course of another
great man, it may be remarked that on that
auspicious day Thomas Babington Macaulay
'^ crossed the frontier of Mysore." It was in that
year, moreover, that the Houses of Parliament
were destroyed by fire.

During several generations, the Spurgeons
have been engaged in the Christian ministry.
The Pastor's grandfather spent half a century
among a flock at Stamboume, and this old
worthy's son is a valued minister of the Inde-
pendent denomination at the present time. One
of the earliest custodians of the popular preacher
was an affectionate maiden aunt, who, with others^
could not fail to detect a precocious talent in her
youthful charge. We have all heard how Richard
Knill looked upon the boy with admiration, to
express hopes in regard to the future which have
not been disappointed.

A Puritan ViUran.

Some years ago fhe Rev. W. Osborne^ yAio b
DOW pastor of a flourishing Baptist Church at
Eastbourne^ supplied me with the following re-
miniscence id the Rev* James Spurgeon of
Stamboume :—

The day preceding that on which he entered
on college work in London, Mn Osborne preached
at Stamboume for old Mr. Spurgeon, who was
then an octogenarian, and showed the strongest
possible partiality for Dr. Watts's hymns. This
deep-rooted prejudice on the part of the old
gentleman was a trait in his character with which
the neighbours and regular hearers were familiar ;
but it was something of which the young preacher
had never heard even the slightest whisper. Mr.
Osborne arrived at Stamboume, he entered the
chapel, to receive the first intimation of a coming
disagreement when a member of the congregation
expressed a hope that the hymns were selected,
and that all were of Dr. Watts's composition.
On tuming to the book it was at once seen that
the unlucky youth had missed his way in each
selection, every hymn being the production of an
unappreciated poet, for none would suit the old
gentleman but those of Isaac Watts. Time was
pressing, however, and the hymns were allowed to
pass ; but as the service went on, the effects of
the strange verses on ^h» mind of the oU pastor

6 Early Days.

were striking^ and calculated to create trepidation
io the heart of an inexperienced preacher. Like
a master io Israel the old man took a seat in the
table-pewy and» as occasion required, he cast a
searching glance towards the pulpit. When the
first hymn was announced he signified his dis-
approval by gravely shaking his head ; when the
second was given out, with no improvement, he
expressed his disgust by simply closing the book ;
but when the third came, and was still by a for-
bidden author, he raised his fist as though he
would chastise the ofiender. At the conclusion of
the service there was an explosion, not of wrath,
but of pent-up feeling. ^ Young man I ** cried the
aged pastor, with a genial twinkle of the ey%
whOe he raised a stout stick to give emphasis to
his word»— ^ Young man I if you do not want
yoat brains knocked out, you must sing Dr.
Watts's hymns I ** If he was not actually terrified
into compliance with these forcible demands,
Mr. Osborne took particular care not to repeat in
the afternoon the mistake of the morning. At
this second service hymns by Dr. Watts were
quietly introduced ; old Mr. Spurgeon according
the preacher a nod of approval as soon as the
first was announced. When the second and
third hymns were such as could be commended,
former chagrin gave place to extreme satisfactioa

A Child Preacher.

^ Right, sir, right I ** cried the pastor, after listening
admiringly to a sermon on the fall of Jericho, ** 1
am glad to see you can appreciate the best authors
so quickly. Go now and get your ram's horn
ready, like those men, and God may make you
the means of hurling to the ground walls as
strong and stubborn as those" — ijt^ of Jericho.
On the following day Mr. Osborne removed to
London, joined the Pastors' College, and thus got
his ** ram's horn ready'' for future service in a
manner that won the approval of his honest
outspoken preceptor.

It is generally understood that Mr. Spurgeon
showed his ministerial proclivities almost as soon
as he could walk and speak. His earliest recol-
lections are of reading religious books ; and in
childish days he would address an audience^
corresponding in age to his own years, with more
force than some adults can command in the
pulpit Very strong tendencies in a certain
direction in childhood are always interesting ;
they must have been doubly so in a case where
the subject was endowed with one of the finest
voices of which we have any example. Though
thus piously brought up, he was not converted
until he was sixteen, and the great change
occurred at Colchester, in which town he purposed
to visit one sanctuary after another in search of

8 Early Days.

saving light He turned into one of the humblest
of chapels, and there heard a thin, pale man preach
from the words, '' Look unto Me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth." The manner in which
the preacher cried, ^ Look I Look I LOOK I ** was
peculiarly striking, and, what is better, relief came
instantly, the simplicity of the Gospel being at
once appreciated. The pulpit in which this
memorable ** Look " sermon was preached may
now be seen at the Stockwell Orphanage.

On a certain occasion, Mr. Spurgeon's father,
in speaking of his family to Dr. Ford, of America,
is reported to have remarked : — ** I had been
from home a great deal, trying to build up weak
congregations, and felt that I was neglecting the
religious training of my own children while I
toiled for the good of others. I returned home
with these feelings. I opened the door, and was
surprised to find none of the children about the
hall. Going quietly up the stairs, I heard my
wife's voice. She was engaged in prayer with
the children. I heard her pray for them one
by one by name. She came to Charles, and
specially prayed for him, for he was of high
spirit and daring temper. I listened till she
had ended her prayer, and I felt and said,
* Lord, I will go on with Thy work. The children
will be cared for/*

JuveniU Literary Efforts.

Of his education after this date» little needs
to be said He plodded as a schoolboy at
Colchester. He studied for a time at Maidstone,
in an agricultural college of that town. He
subsequently accepted an appointment In a
school at Newmarket, the principal of which was
a Baptist ; but I am not aware that this fact in
any way accounts for the change of sentiment-—
the transition from Paedobaptist to Baptist views
— ^which about this time occurred. That change
was brought about by a close study of the
Bible ; for Mr. Spurgeon's mind is of an inde-
pendent cast, that would not brook the inter-
ference of any lower authority than Scripture.
Thus early his mind was active, while his
industry was great A slight brochure of those
days, called ''Antichrist and her Brood,'' has
never been published, although I believe that
the MS. is still in the possession of the Rev.
John Spurgeon. A poem called ''The Fall of
Jericho " was printed, and afterwards republished
in the first number of The Sward and the
TraweL

Before his conversion, and as a mere youth,
Mr. Spurgeon was tempted to become an un-
believer; and while preaching at Exeter Hall,
on Sunday evening, March i8th, 1855, he gave
tome vi\id reminiscences of that unhappy time^

lo Early Days.

— -* There may be some one here to-night who
has come without faith, a man of reason, a free-
thinker. With him I have no argument at all
I profess not to stand here as a controversialist,
but as a preacher of things that I know and feel.
But I too have been like him. There was an
evil hour when once I slipped the anchor of my
faith ; I cut the cable of my belief ; I no longer
moored myself hard by the coasts of revelation ;
I allowed my vessel to drift before the wind ; I
said to reason, * Be thou my captain ; * I said
to my own brain, * Be thou^ my rudder ; * and I
started on my mad voyage. Thank God it is
all over now ; but I will tell you its brief history.
It was one hurried sailing over the tempestuous
ocean of free thought. I went on, and as I
went the . skies began to darken ; but to make
up for that deficiency the waters were brilliant
with coruscations of brilliancy. I saw sparks
flying upwards that pleased me, and I thought,
* If this be free thought, it is a happy thing.'
My thoughts seemed gems, and I scattered stars
with both my hands. But anon, instead of these
coruscations of glory, I saw grim fiends, fierce
and horrible, start up from the waters, and as I
dashed on they gnashed their teeth and grinned
upon me ; they seized the prow of my ship and
dragged me on, while I, In part, gloried at the

In the Realm of Unbelief. ii

rapidity of my motion, but yet shuddered at the
terrific rate with which I passed the old land-
marks of my faith. As I hurried forward with
an awful speed, I began to doubt my very
existence; I doubted if there were a world, I
doubted if there were such a thing as m}rself.
I went to the very verge of the dreary realms of
unbelief. I went to the very bottom of the sea
of infidelity. I doubted everything. But here
the devil foiled himself ; for the very extrava-
gance of the doubt proved its absurdity. Just
when I saw the bottom of that sea, there came
a voice which said, * And can this doubt be
true ? ' At this very thought I awoke. I started
from that death-dream, which God knows might
have damned my soul, and ruined this my body,
if I had not awoke. When I arose faith took
the helm ; from that moment I doubted not
Faith steered me back ; faith cried, * Away,
away I ' I cast my anchor on Calvary ; I lifted
my eye to God ; and here I am alive, and out
of helL Therefore, I speak what I do know. I
have sailed that perilous voyage ; I have come
safe to land. Ask me again to be an infidel I
No ; I have tried it ; it was sweet at first, but
bitter afterwards.''

I will now briefly allude to the pastor's first
sermon, and then return to some other things

I a Early Days.

i»

which were providentially overruled to pioduoe
the best results In after days.

On a certain day, between twenty and thirty
years ago^ two young men might have been seen
walking out of Cambridge towards a village lying
In the suburbs of that town, for the purpose of
holding a cottage service. Neither of the two
pedestrians had ever preached a sermon in his
life ; but more singular was the fact that each
marchel forward along the green level lanes
while harbouring the comfortable mistake that
the other was the preacher for the day. They
talked as they travelled, and, after a time, the
younger ventured to intimate to his companion
that he hoped the Lord would bless his-— the
companion's — labours. Those words as they fell
appear to have produced something akin to an
electric shock. ^ Oh, dear I '' cried the elder
youth, eagerly, desirous of correcting an incon*
venient error — ^ Oh, dear, I never preached in my
life. I never thought of doing such a thing. I
was asked to walk with you, and I sincerely hope
God will bless you in your preaching.** •• Nay,"
cried the younger, apparently growing nervous,
^ but I never preached, and I don't know that
I could do anything of the sort** The elder
had thrown ofT the burden ; the younger walked
on, filled with fear and trembling. There

A Child Tkeolo^an. 13

the cottage, there were the people assembled,
and a sermon would have to be preached to
them. The effort was made ; the younger of the
two novices made that effort, succeeded beyond
his expectations — and his name was Charles
Haddon Spurgeon.

For years before this eventful day in his history
he had shown himself to be of a strongly in-
quisitive mind. Having once set his heart on
knowing a thing, he would persevere until he
came at the truth, nor would he allow his
reasonable curiosity to be evaded either by the
friendly " Pooh, pooh ! " or by sterner rebuke. In
an autobiographical article, published more than
ten years ago, we are supplied with some juvenile
reminiscences far too characteristic to be over-
looked. When as a child he was living with
his grandfather, it was the custom for Charles
Haddon to read the Scriptures at family worship,
and on every occasion he was allowed the licence
of asking any question he chose on the portion
for the day. On a certain morning the incon-
veniently-inquisitive reader came to the ^ bottom-
less pit** of the Revelation, and immediately
asked, ^ Grandpa, what can this mean ? '' ** Pooh,
pooh i child, go on," replied the old man, regard-
ing the question as too trivial to call for serious
lepljf. To a child, bowever, eveiy subject of

14 Early Days.

interest is important ; and in this instance Charles
determined to read the same chapter morning
after morning until a satisfactory explanation
should be offered. ''Well, dear, what is it that
puzzles you ? ^ asked the grandfather, after he
had heard about the Beast, the Mother of Harlots,
etc, etc, etc, as often as he thought desirable,
or perhaps profitable. The question was then
put in a more definite form, '' If the pit aforesaid
had no bottom, where would all those people fall
to who dropped out at its lower end ? " The
query was too deep to be answered at once ; it
seems to have disturbed the gravity of the little
circle, and to have been a sample of the ^ diffi*
culties" that were propounded for elucidation at
family worship.

The late sainted Mr. Knill, of Chester, was a
friend of the family in those early days, and he
happened to be drawn in an extraordinary manner
towards the child whose singularities were suffi-
ciently marked to make him an object of more
than ordinary interest One fine morning Mr.
Knill awoke his protigi at an early hour, and for
some time they walked together in the gardea
They conversed about books and reading, and
about the privilege of winning souls for Christ
Then they knelt together in the arbour, where
the elder prayed for the younger, and did so io

Mr, KmlTs Proplucy, 15

a manner that brought a blessing and left a life-
long impression. Afterwards» in the midst of the
family circle, Mr. Knill placed the child on his
knee, and remarked, * I do not know how it iS|
but I feel a solemn presentiment this child will
preach the Gospel to thousands» and God will
bless him to many souls. So sure am I of this,
that when my little man preaches in Rowland
Hill's Chapel — as he will do one day — I should
like him to promise me that he will give out
the hymn beginning

'^'God moves In a mysterious waf
His woadeis to perfonn.'*'

That rather striking prophecy was completely
fulfilled ; but Mr. Spui^eon is of opinion that the
words themselves were instrumental in bringing
about their own fulfilment

The ^' first sermon" has been already men-
tioned. When the ice was once broken, the
neighbourhood of Cambridge was the scene of the
young Christian's evangelistic efforts. On arriving
at a village on an unpropitious wintry night he
has found the chapel empty, and has, lantern in
hand, gone round to the houses to collect a con-
gregation. It is quite a mistake to suppose that
he was not popular before coming to London;
ibr he was a favourite with the Cambridgeshire
peasantry Detore He became so conspicuous a

i6 Early Days.

figure In the outer world and the leading member
of his denomination* When stationed at Water-
beach, his services began to be In excessive
demand, and Invitations to preach were cordially
responded ta The more shrewd even among the
common people must have perceived that one who
was something more than a rising man was In
their midst

In jrouth he did not altogether set his face
against going to colI^[ey though in later life he
has ^a thousand times thanked the Lord very
heartily for the strange providence which forced
his steps into another and far better path.**
Truth to say, Mr. Spui^eon missed a collegiate
training consequent on one of those singular
mishaps which, at the time, are as annoying as
they are unavoidable. While he was carrying
all before him at Waterbeach his judicious seniors
thot^ht that the pastor would never become all
he was capable of becoming unless he went to
London and sat the prescribed number of times
at the feet of a duly-qualified professor. This
advice was listened to, and arrangements were
made for a meeting of Dr. Angus on the one
part and Mr. Spurgeon on the other part, the
rendezvous appointed having been the house
of the well-known publisher, Mr. Macmillan A
Cambridge The young pastor arrived at the

Earlv Piodding. 17

time specified, was ushered into • drawing-room
by the maid, and, after waiting for two houn^
he rang the bell to learn the reason of the pro-
tracted delay. In the meantime, Dr. Angus had
arrived, had been shown into another room, but
not being so well able to exemplify the virtue
of patience as his younger friend, the learned
doctor departed for London, doubtiess wondering
why young aspirants to the ministiy were not
more eager to seize fleeting opportunities. Thus
the two sat in adjoining rooms until patience
had '^had her perfect work," neither suspecting
that the other was near. What momentous con-
sequences sometimes hang on small matters I how
much may occasionally depend on the remissness
of a half-witted servant-maid I Still, the Church
would have gained nothing by C. H. Spurgeon's
admission into Regents Park Collie

Writing in 1881, Mr. Spurgeon thus referred
to his own days of early plodding:—

* My college course was after this fashion. I
was for three years a Gunbridge man, though I
never entered the University. I could not have
obtained a degree, because I was a Noncon*
formist ; and, moreover, it was a better thing for
me to pursue my studies under an admirable
scholar and tender friend, and preach at the same
tima I must have been a singular-looking youth

iB Early Days.

»to

on wet evenings. During the last year of my
stay in Cambridge, when I had given up my
office as usher, I was wont to sally forth eveiy
night in the week except Saturday, and walk
three, five,- or perhaps eight miles out and back
again on my preaching work ; and when it rained
I dressed myself in waterproof leggings and a
mackintosh coat, and a hat with a waterproof
covering, and I carried a dark lantern to show me
the way across the fields. I had many adveii«
tures • • • but what I had gathered by my studies
during the day I handed out to a company of
villagers in the evening, and was greatly profited
by the exercise. I always found it good to say
my lesson when I had learned it. Children do
so, and it is equally good for preachers, especially
if they say their lesson by heart. In my young
days I fear I said many odd things and made
many blunders, but my audiences were not hyper*
critical, and no newspaper writers dogged my
heels ; and so I had a happy training-ground in
which, by continual practice, I attained such a
degree of ready speech as I now possess. There
if no way of learning to preach which can be
compared to preaching itself. If you want to
swim you must get into the water, and if you at
the first make a sorry exhibition, never mind, for
it is by swimming as you can that you learn to

Yautkful Dts€tpltn$. 19

fwim as you should. Hence we ought to be
lenient with b^inners, for they will do better
by-and-bye. If young speakers in Cambridge had
been discouraged and silenced, I might not have
found my way here, and, therefore, I hope I shall
be the last to bring forth a wet blanket for any
who sincerely speak for Christ, however humble
may be their endeavours. The fear of there
being too many preachers is the last that will
occur to me. I rejoice in that passage of the
psalm, * The Lord gave the word ; great was the
company of those that published it' Go forth,
young man, and proclaim among the people of
this vast city all the words of this life. Among
these millions you will all be few enough. • • • Fill
your baskets with living seed, and in due season
bring them back laden with many sheaves. My
heart is with you ; my soul rejoices in your suc-
cesses ; and I look to the great Head of the
Church, through your means, to gather in His
blood-bought ones.**

Speaking at the laying of the first stone of the
Metropolitan Tabernacle, August i6th, 1859, the
Rev. John Spurgeon thus referred to his son's
early days^—

^ I always thought my son did wrong in coming
to London ; now you see that I was wrong. I
always thought he was wrong in not go^g to

ao Early Days.

college ; I tried three or four hours with him one
night with a dear friend that loved him, but it
was no use ; he said, ' No, I will never go to
college, only in strict obedience to you as a
father/ There I left the matter ; and I see that
God has been with him, though I thought it was
a wrong step in him to go to London. And I
thought it was a wrong step for me to come here
to-night ; but perhaps I may be mistaken again.
I can tell you it is one of the happiest days of
my life. I feel beyond myself when I think of
the kindness that has been shown to him when
but a youth. I ascribe it all to God's goodness
and the earnest prayers of his people. He has
been exposed to temptation from every source,
and even now, my friends, he is not free from it
You have prayed for him, and God has sustained
him. Oh I let me entreat you to continue your
prayers. Every one here to-night, go home and
pray for your pastor. A meeting like this is
enough to carry a man beyond himself and fill
his heart with pride ; but the grace of God is
all-sufficient Several persons said to me — I do
not know what their motive was — ^ Your son will
never last in London six months; he has no
education.* I said, 'You are terribly mistaken;
he has the best education that can possibly be
had; God has been his teacher, and he has had

A FatJuf^s Reminiscences. ai

earthly teachers toa* I knew, as far as education
went) he could manage London very well Then
they said his health would fail; but it has not
failed him yet He has had enough to shake
his constitution, it is true, but God has been very
merciful to hinu I think if there is one thing
that would crown my happiness to-day, it would
have been to see his grandfather here. I should
have loved to see him here. He said, 'Boy, don't
ask me to go^ I am too old ; I am overcome with
God's goodness and mercy to me.' He is always
talking about him. Old people like to have
something to talk about, so he always talks about
his grandson. And next to that I should like,
my dear friends, to have seen his mother here;
I believe, under God's grace, his mother has been
the means of leading him to Christ. You are
well aware that I go and talk in the best manner
I can to a few poor people on the Sabbath day,
and God has blessed my labours. I thought^
however, I ought not to go out on the Sabbath
day, as God's people should train up their children
in the best way they can ; I thought I was ntg-
lecting my children, and as I came home. one
evening ai^out seven o'clock, and went upstairs,
I heard the voice of a mother pleading for her
boy Charles, and talking to him and the others,
and pouring her heart out in prayer in such a

ft Early Days.

way as I never did in my life, and as I never
heard before. It is for the encouragement of
mothers that I mention this, that you may pray
fcM* your children, for God is a prayer-hearing
and prayer-answering God.**

Whilst taking a retrospect of a third of a
century of work, we become conscious of feeling
unwontedly curious about the youthful associa-
tions of one whom we may pronounce to be the
first preacher of this age without fear of contra-
diction. What signs of unusual genius, of future
distinction, were visible during youth? Who
were his friends ? where may we trace the foot-
prints of his first travels as a preacher ? Feeling
more than ordinary interest in these minutiae, I
some years ago asked a friend, whose fortune it
was to reside near ^Ouse's silent tide,** if be
would collect such ana as he could relating to
Mr. Spurgeon's early days in that vicinity.

I believe there are about a score of Houghtons
in the British Empire; but to myself the one
interesting member of a numerous family is that
Houghton which lies low and snug among the
tall trees luxuriating on the banks of the broad,
slow-rolling Ouse, midway between Huntingdon
and St Ives. It is not a spot whereon one
would at first expect to find any religious
memories of more than common interest ; but

The Guest of Potto Brown. t^

In this case appearances are, happily, deceptive.
Near Houghton, Dr. Brooke, an able preacher,
and father of the well-known Rev. Stopford
Brooke, was for some time stationed. Here also
laboured Mr. Edward Cressell, a minister of the
Independent denomination, and whose ministra-
tions were heartily appreciated by the homely
village folk of the neighbourhood, and by lovers
of good preaching farther away. Above all, it
was at Houghton in his early days that Mr.
Spurgeon became the guest of the eccentric Potto
Brown, called by Elihu Burritt, in one of his
books, *The Miller of Houghton.* Mr. Brown
was thoroughly eccentric, but he was still a kind-
hearted man, who grew hot-house grapes for the
sick poor, and who could commend the Wes-
leyans for saving souls at a cheaper rate than
was done by any other denomination. On this
question, as well as on others, the youth and
the veteran were far from being agreed, and
consequently some lively discussions came off
between the two which for smartness would not
have disgraced the Literary Club in its palmiest
days.

I will now give what my Ouse-side friend
says about Houghton, its famous miller, and the
youthful preacher, C. H. Spurgeon :—

^It has been with much interest that I have

24 Early Days.

traced, by the aid of the memories of my acquaint*
ances, the eariy teachings and appearance of one
who has taken and maintained an honoured place
in the vineyard of Jesus Christ, and one who has
well borne the burden and heat of the day. A
gentleman, whom I took to be a relative, informed
me that he heard Mr. Spurgeon preach his first
sermon when about fourteen years of age, and
he then read, prayed, and expounded the Word,
being attired in a round jacket and broad, turn-
down collar, such as I remember to have seen
in fashion at that period.

"Mr. C. D. tells me that he remembers C H.
Spurgeon preaching at Somersham about twenty-
six years ago, and when he would be about
seventeen years of age. He was then wearing
a round jacket and turn-down collar. He re-
members the words of the text, though not their
place—' Fear not, thou worm Jacob.' The boyish
voice of the preacher afforded a striking and
impressive contrast to the tones of the aged
minister who was accustomed to occupy the

pulpit

" Mr. Spurgeon was then living at some place
near Cambridge, and his mode of preaching
afforded promise that he would become a power-
ful and popular speaker. One old man, who was
a Particular Baptist and, I believe, difficult tc

Some Old PeopUs Reminiscences. 25

please, went to hear him, and was careful to
repeat the visit

"One old minister, for whom Mr. Spurgeon
preached, was plagued with a bad wife, and she
must needs go to America ; but with great
patience the husband waited for her return, never
fastening the door of the house nor suffering
others to do so till she came back to him.

•' Mrs. J. A, remembers Mr. Spurgeon preach*
ing at Houghton when quite a lad. She remem*
bers the sermon was a very impressive one, and
could it have been heard without seeing the
boyish preacher, any one would have taken it to
be the discourse of a staid and experienced Chris-
tian. She believes this was one thing that led
Mr. Potto Brown to look upon the youthful orator
with less favour than he might otherwise have
done, because he thought that the sermon could
not have been his own composition.

^ Mrs. B. appears to me to have a more vivid
recollection of the impression of what Mrs. J. A.
felt at the time above stated. There was much
conversation between the youthful preacher and
Mr. Potto Brown, and evidently much contention,
too; for each would hold firmly to his own
opinion.

" Mrs. C tells me that her husband, who was
the schoolmaster at the time, was struck by the

a6 Early Days.

precocious talent of the young preacher, and with
his general style of preaching.**

The above notes were collected for me by the
late Edward Cressell, whose friendship I highly
valued) and who, as pastor of the Congregational
Church, Houghton, Hunts, was one of the best
preachers in the neighbourhood The informa-
tion is now, I believe, regarded as common
property by quidnuncs in both the Old and tha
New World.

In regard to Mr. Spui^eon and the late Potto
Brown, the Pastor on one occasion himself referred
to that memorable meeting — ^ How he shocked
our Calvinistic propriety! • . « We recollect his
telling us that our preaching was very well far am
apprenHa boy^ which was no doubt a correct
estimate, but after he had spoken in that style
one felt quite at home with him, and gave him
a Roland for his Oliver without the slightest
compunction. It Mras a battle royal, and both
the old gentleman and the 'prentice boy grew
sufficiently warm ; but no scars remained on
either combatant. Mr. Brown walked with os to
Huntingdon in loving conversation, and afterwards
sent us Haidane*s L%f$ as a present/*

ttEMINISCENCES OF WATERBEACML

I. TBB ViLLAOB and m Sv&ROUNDINQti

IL RiooLLBonoNs OF Ml. Spukgbon s Pastokaiu

** WImb I tliiiili vpoo the all Imt tnfinite mischief which may reaull
torn a mistake at to our vocatioii for the Christian pastorate, I ieel
Oferwhehned with fear lest any of us should be slack in examining oar
credentials ; and I had rather that we stood too much in doubt, and
eiamined too frequently, than that we should become cumberera
of the ground. There are not lacking many exact methods by which
a man may test his call to the ministry if he earnestly desin-s to do sa
It is imperative upon him not to enter the ministry until he has made
sc^emn quest and trial of himsdf at to this point His own personal
salvation being secure, he must investigate as to the further matter
of his can to office ; the first is vital to himself a& a Christian, the
second equally vital to him as a pastor. As well be a professor
without convo^on, as a pastor without calling. In both cases then
Is a name and nothing mon,'*—Lichtnts §9 My SiudentSt 1. 95.

REMINISCENCES OF WATERBEACH.

I. — ^Thb Village and its Surroundings

AS the village in which Mr* Spurgeon com-
menced his pastoral career, Waterbeach
teemed to be worthy of a special visit, so that
when the opportunity occurred I undertook the
journey. The parish lies about five miles north
of Cambridge, the soil is remarkably rich, and <mi
leaving the station the tourist will not fail to
observe the tokens of more than average pros-
perity everywhere manifest ; while the magnificent
dome of sky presents that aspect of immensity
which is particularly noticeable on great level areas
such as the Cambridgeshire flats and the neigh-
bouring fens. At the last census the population
had been put down at sixteen hundred and
nineteen, and one might despair of finding a
more comfortable agricultural settlement The in
habitants eat the fruits of their luxuriant marshes
while sitting beneath their own vines and

30 Reminiscences of WcUerbeach.

fig trees ; for» instead of belonging to one
domineering autocrat, the land is divided into
small proprietorships. The people are, conse-
quently, as remarkable for their independence in
religious matters as they are for their Liberalism
in politics. They are an honest, hospitable folk,
always ready to entertain a stranger, and while
characterised by hereditary prejudices, know only
of two hemispheres — Waterbeach and Mark Lane.
Their prejudices are ^oing one by one. The open
sewer, for example, which formerly crossed and
fumigated the village, has been covered over,
though the older * Conservatives " battled bravely
on behalf of a venerable institution ; and a
smithy, black and begrimed, still defiling the
middle of the ^ Green," was said to be already
doomed. Nonconformity was everywhere in the
ascendant, and the vicar, who was a decided
Evangelical, appeared to lead the pleasantett
existence possible by simply preaching the Gospel
instead of fighting the sects. Were his procedure
less judicious he would wage unequal war, and
would, besides, risk changing present friends into
ecclesiastical wasps. Fully to realise the anomaly,
remember that we were just ten minutes' ride
from the University, and that though Waterbeach
Church attracted one of the best congregations in
the vidnity, yet the parish, as I underrtoodt con-

A Congenial Sphere. 31

tiined only one large farmer, and a few small
ones, who were Churchmen ; and then commend
a vicar who, under such conditionsi could command
the loving esteem of every parishioner.

Such being the character of Waterbeach, we
cannot wonder that in his youth Mr. Spurgeon
found the village to be a congenial sphere, that
he did his share in confirming the Puritan-like
faith and politics of the people, while his own
character may have taken a colouring from his
associations. In a strain which a certain critic
judges to be worthy of ^The Complete Letter
Writer,** he referred to his charge, at the age
of nineteen, as a ^little Garden of Eden,** and
only poverty obliged him to sever the tie of
onion. Had Mr. Spurgeon's ministry commenced
in these times, instead of at the date it did,
Waterbeach would, undoubtedly, have held its
own a 3rear or two longer, in spite of the call
to London. The people are immensely proud
of their old connection ; and still, in a manner,
regarding their late pastor as one of themselves,
always welcome him back into their midst with
fervent enthusiasm. This regard would appear
to be pretty general among high and low.
At the best tables no guest would be allowed
to speak words of detraction unchallenged ; and
DO one^ who is nice as r^^ards consequence^

32 Reminiscences of Waterbeach.

would impugn Spurgeon's orthodoxy or good
nature among the peasants at any one of the
village lounges.

After alighting from the train, I had scarce
advanced a hundred yards towards the village
when it was my good fortune to encounter
Mr. James Toller, of Winfold Farm. Mr. Toller
is a pillar of the Nonconformist interest in
Waterbeach^ he is a liberal contributor to the
institutions at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and
Mr. Spurgeon himself has, more than once, been
a guest at the worthy yeoman's house. One
piece of luck — the word is used by the compilers
of the Prayer-Book — was soon followed by
another; for the clouds, which had threatened
rain, broke and lightened, so that we were even
privileged to see Waterbeach in the autumn
sunshine.

After paying our respects at the manse of the
Baptist pastor, and looking in at the village
news-room, we find ourselves on that eminently
interesting site — the scene of Mr. Spurgeon's
first pastorate. The old thatched chapel has,
however, disappeared — we feel a sort of selfish
regret that it should be so — it has given place
to a handsome and more commodious meeting-
house, the corner-stones of which were respec-
tively laid by Mr. Spurgeon and Mr. Toller

A Waterbeach Deacon. 33

Still, the site is the same, and that is enough for
our present purpose. On this very ground, a
generation ago, many honest country folk
assembled for worship who already b^^n to
wonder whereunto the thing would grow. The
then boy-preacher not only edified and surprised
the people who crowded the little chapel ; there
were some hearers there who, though poor and
unlettered, were yet sufficiently discerning to
know that an uncommon genius was in their
midst •* He astonished everybody at that time ? "
I inquired of an elderly deacon who well remem-
bers every circumstance. " Of course he did I "
was the quick, curt reply. ^ How, then, did he
preach?" "Why," continued the old man, look-
ing straight at me, as though I ought to know
all about it, ^ like a man a hundred years old
in experience I " That honest deacon afterwards
visited London for the first time ; he went the
countryman's usual round of inspection in the
capital, saw the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and
sat down as a guest of the pastor in his house
at Clapham. On his return he tried to tell the
people what he had really seen ; but memor>
grew confused. His unsophisticated mind seemed
to retain but one thing, the lustre ol which
darkened everything else — ^''Mr. Spurgeoo was
very glad to see me."

34 Reminiscences of Waterbeach.

Winfold Fann covers an area of nearly six
hundred acres, and the residence is a mile from
the village. The proprietor of this fertile inheri*
tance Is Mr. Toller's eldest son, a young gentle-
man who had then just come of age, and who
resided with his father. In the opinion of
Mr. Toller no man can be a landlord and tenant
at the same time, and earn a competence — the
shortest road to bankruptcy Is over your own
land as a gentleman farmer. There is more
philosophy in this reasoning than a townsman
can gainsay.

The admirer of fine breeds will find enough of
entertainment at Winfold Farm ; and by a little
judicious selection from the bullocks in the
straw-yard, and the sheep in the turnip-field,
a very taking cattle-show might be put together
—-especially if the thing were supplemented
with a few choice pigs, and with some more
than admirable specimens of horse-flesh which
would be available. But more akin to our
subject is the acre of land which Is annually
set apart for the orphans of Stockwell, the
produce of flour and potatoes being despatched
to London every autumn. The best things on
the estate are not deemed too good to bestow
freely upon Mr. Spurgeon's Institutions ; to be
but a friend of the pastor is to carry a passport

Pre-Reformatian Relics. 35

to liberal entertainment Only a day or two
before^ a well-known gentleman, then in repute
at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, had been down
to Winfold for the purpose of enjoying ^a little
sport** Provided with the most perfect of
breech-loaders, he started forth to t>ang and
blaze away his powder at a prodigal rate, though
from mom to dusk he did not even ruffle the
feathers of a single native bird. Any stray
rambler at whom this amateur might have
directly aimed would have risked no bodily
harm, the general opinion, as Mr, Toller ex-
plained, being that the marksman would not
have hit the house had he levelled anJ fired
with that intention. But still, ramblers abroad
were seriously threatened by the stray shots
which, for the time, whizzed hither and thither
in wild irregularity. Such Is the account Mr.
Toller gave of his sporting guest, who, it scaroe
need be said, was not that ready marksman—
but not with firearms — Mr. Spurgeon himself.

A walk before dinner being proposed, Mr.
Toller conducted my companion and myself to
Denney Abbey Farm, the estate adjoining his own,
the dwelling-house and outbuildings being the
remains of a pre-Reformation monastery, of which
Mr. Richard Toller was found to be the master.
Everything here is weird and antiquated to m

36 Rtminisuncts 0/ WattrbMck,

degree which Is sufficiently pleasing on a sunomer
day, when the objects of interest can be seen and
enjoyed ; but the effect is less pleasing when the
shades of night are falling, and the winter wind,
moaning around the tall, stout chimneys, seems to
be Old Nature's funeral requiem over monks and
nuns whose bones are thickly packed beneath the
garden soil It is as strange as true that owls,
bats, and other night-birds find at Denney a con-
genial retreat wherein to screech and croak away
the midnight hour. When the business of the day
b hushed, oi e might easily associate the clanking
of a horse's halter chain with the creaking of a
Templar's armour, as he would once have ridden
from the courtyard to join the First Crusade ; or
the pattering of a cat's feet on the garden-walk
might remind one of those light-treading maidens
whose lives were consecrated to God and St.
Clare. But as we are not superstitious^ and the
sun b shining, let us deal with sober fact

In the year 1 1 60, Robert Chamberlain, Earl of
Richmond, became a monk at Ely, some ten miles
distant, and being a man of enterprising piety, he
gave an island in the surrounding mere for holy
purposes. A cell for a few hardy brethren was
accordingly erected ; but when repeated floods
obliged them to remove they encamped on higher
ground, bestowed by Aubrey Picot, at Denney,

Diftney Abbey. 37

After they had held the site for a few years, the
Ely monks were superseded by those daring foes
(rf* Moslem infidels» the Knights Templars, to
whose wealthy Order the manor of Waterbeach
belonged. In the fourteenth century the society
of Templars was abolished, when their forsaken
cells were occupied by the nuns of St Clare,
twenty-five of whom resided here on an income
of £ij% a-yean After the dissolution of the
religious houses, at the era of the Reformation,
Denney passed from one owner to another ; and
in the reign of Elizabeth the farm was rented, I
believe, by Hobson, the carrier of Cambridge, the
first master who let out hired horses, and in
whose stables the familiar proverb ^ Hobson's
choice^ is known to have originated. It is not
probable that the property has undergone any
great changes during the last century. The
dwelling-house is a portion of the original Church,
founded in 1 1 60, and rebuilt by the Countess of
Pembroke in the reign of Edward III. Some of
the outbuildings appear to have been removed,
or to have gradually fallen into decay, though
for several generations the ancient refectory has
served as a convenient bam. When the convent
was in its prime a double entrenchment encircled
its towers, and instead of traversing the country
CD foot, or by horse, as in after years, the monks

3S Heminiscencis of Waterbeach.

plied their oars across the mere, which then spread
Its broad smooth surface between Dennejr and
Ely.

We now return to WInfold to dine and to rest
away the afternoon. When at last we finally take
leave of our friends» we are conscious of having
been entertained In a worthy Old English styles
and also of having spent an agreeable holiday, on
ground which will still be visited by summer
tourists for Its own sake, and also on account of
its happy association with the first pastorate of
Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

IL— -Recollections or Mr. SfurgeokIi

Pastorate.

Some time after the adventure just related I
determined on paying a second visit to the scene
of Mr. Spuigeon's first pastorate.

It had been a wet night, and the damp, cold
November morning was but the prelude to a
soaking, tempestuous day, the wind and the rain
having completed an alliance which was destined
to hold good through another six-and-thirty hours.
^Waterbeach must be a wet place,"* I remarked
to the honest ostler who was driving through the
High-street of the village^ meanwhile eyeing some*

Significance of the Name. 39

what despondingly the thick, leaden-coloured
clouds which were unstintingly emptying their
watery treasures over the flat, far-spreading
country. **Yes, sir," replied the man, at once
catching my meaning, " it ain't called Waterbeach
for nothing." On further enquiry it was readily
found that the notion of the district never having
been known to suffer to any considerable extent
from drought was generally accepted. One
authority was heard to venture the opinion that
the weather never would clear up any more;
while another gentleman, who had been a frequent
visitor, declares that it always rains when he is
there, go when he will. It may be all very well
to ask. What's in a name ? but cavil as we choose,
Waterbeach is exceedingly suggestive, and our
ancestors who framed the double word doubtless
took into account the local characteristics of the
country. Be this as it may, people naturally
seem to associate the village with mists above
and water below. It is not so very long since
that a genius of a student, who was commissioned
to '* supply " the pulpit for a certain period, arrived
on the ground provided with a complete oibkin
outfit Though the knowing might smile, ** Water-
beach" was redolent of water; and he showed
the wit of a growing theologian by being pre-
pared ibr contingencies. Without presuming to

40 Reminiscences of WcUerUack.

speak as an authority, either one way or the
other, I may add to the testimony of others that,
having visited Waterbeach twice within the space
of two ytaa% it rained more or less on each
occasion.

The object I had In view in siting Waterbeach
a second time was to see a veteran Baptist elder,
named Robert Coe^ who was a deacon of the church
more than thirty years ago, when Mr. Spurgeon
was pastor, and who then retained his honourable
office. If Mr. Coe was not the beau ideal of a
Nonconformist deacon, one's judgment must be
awry; for he was hardly less than this to an
unprejudiced Londoner interested in the ^ lions "
and folk-lore of Old Cambridgeshire. The elder
and his wife were found to be thorough country
people, of the old-fashioned type ; and while they
were pious, thrifty, and well-to-do, they were so
far animated by the predilections of a former
generation that they were tempted to look askance
on some of our valued modem contrivances.
During the whole of their quiet, peaceful life
they had not travelled any great distance from the
family home ; and, truth to say, they had never
become completely satisfied with railway locomo-
tion. Waterbeach was their world ; and limited as
the sphere might seem to natures of a more ambi-
tious turn, Waterbeach had, under Providence^ very

A VtUran Deacon. 41

sufficiently supplied their simple wants. If any
are disposed to doubt the happiness of such a
lott their scepticism would vanish after they had
spent an hour at the veteran's fireside. Mr. Coe
was a successful man because he had done well
as regards both worlds; tod the restlessness of
his ty^ was not the restlessness of discontent ; it
was rather the habit of a keen observer who
could see through a visitor at a glance. He not
only knew all about what had happened at
Waterbeach during one or two generations^ but
he was quite willing to be communicative.

^ Oh, what a sight of times he did try to get
me to London/' he remarked, passing his hand
across his forehead and looking straight into the
fire. •* You mean Mr. Spurgeon ? *• ** Yes," was
the reply ; ^ and he said, ' If )rou will come I
will present you with a new flagon, and it shall
be engraved."* It transpired that a common
black wine-bottle had been used at the communion
table of the chapel opposite; and as such a
practice could hardly be said to be either ** decent **
or ** in order," the presentation of something better
was suggested. The flagon was earned in due
time, and I was privileged to hold the treasure
in my hand, and to read the inscription, ^ Presented
to the Baptist Church, Waterbeach, by C H.
Spurgeon, 1876."

4t Reminiscences of Waterbeack*

The first visit of an elderly man to the metro-
poliSi after he has spent his life in the country, is
a momentous event ; it is a very agitating piece
of experience. The strangeness of everything
very naturally engenders a timidity such as he
has never felt before. His uneasiness begins
when he finds himself seated in the " London
Express,^ and when the train attains its highest
speed he feels a disposition to stand and hold on
by the windows. The excitement increases before
he has '* done ** a tithe part of the round of wonders
he is expected to see ; so that if at luncheon or
dinner he is caught in the act of using sugar with
potatoes, and salt with apple tart, the error is to
be attributed to the exceptional nature of the
surroundings. When Mr. Coe actually visited
London he well survived a succession of shocks,
until a life longing was realised as he stood, on
a Sabbath morning, a unit in the great congrega-
tion at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. ^ Robert, is
that you ? '' said the Pastor at the close of the
service, without attempting to disguise his surprise
and delight ; ** I thought I should never have
succeeded, but you are here at last I '' The visitor
was entertained at Clapham ; he returned home
delighted with London, and more content than
ever with the quiet prosperity of Waterbeach*
Mr. Cm will never misinterpret these revelations

Burning of the Chapel. 43

Mll«

of his private life. He perhaps remembered that
his position in the world was an exceptional
one ; for, as one of Mr. Spurgeon's first deacons,
thousands of people in both hemispheres were
interested in his antecedents.

It appears that Mr. Spurgeon first went to
Waterbeach in the fall of 185 1, and ministered to
the church during two years without having any
fixed residence in the village. He succeeded Mr.
Peters, who preached to the people for twenty-two
years, the stipend through that period having been
£^ a quarter. This venerable man was still living
at Cambridge when I visited the neighbourhood ;
and on one occasion, at the chapel anniversary,
he grew warmly enthusiastic while speaking about
old times. On such occasions there appears to
be only one drawback to act as a damper on the
natives' satisfaction — the old meeting-house is no
more. One day, during the hot, dry weather of
1 86 1, some careless person threw a quantity of
hot ashes on a heap of litter hard by, and the
result was that not only the chapel, but one or
two other buildings, including an old workhouse,
were totally consumed. ^If it had not been
burned the place would never have been pulled
down,^ said Mr. Toller, who supplied the informa-
tion, ^ for there were people there who venerated
the very smoke." Mr. Spurgeon himself laid the

44 lUmimsun€$s of Waierbeaek.

first stone of the present sanctuary, a few months
after the catastrophe.

Although it was then twenty-seven yeiM ago^
my friend) Mr. Coe, still vividly remembered the
occasion of Mr. Spurgeon*s first visit to Water-
beach on an autumn Sunday in 1851, the young
preacher having been commissioned to supply the
pulpit by an association at Cambridge^ which
attended to the wants of neighbouring churches.
''He sat on one side of the table-pew, and I on
the other side,** remarks the deacon, his face
beaming with pleasure as he recalls the scene.
" I shf U never foi^et it He looked so white, and
I thought to myself h/U never be able to preach
—what a boy he is I I despised his 3routh, yoo
know, and thought all this while the congr^ation
was singing. Then, when the h3rmn was over, he
jumped up and began to read and expound the
chapter about the scribes and pharisees and
lawyers^ and as he went on about their garments,
their phylacteries, and long prayers — I knew that
he catUd preach. All along I was fully persuaded
in my own mind that he would not remain long
at Waterbeadu I could see that he was some-
thing very great, and was evidently intended for
a larger sphere. I could not make him out ; and
one day I asked him wherever he got all the
knowledge from that he put into the sermona

A ViUag$ RevivaL 45

'Oh/ he said, 'I take a book» and I pull the
good things out of it by the hair of their heads.' **
Before its revival under Mr. Spurgeon*s
ministry the congregation at Waterbeach was
veiy small, the chapel on ordinary occasions not
being more than half filled ; but a new era ol
prosperity at once commenced The empty seats
were immediately taken, the aisles were invaded,
the doors were surrounded by rustic crowds for
whom there was no accommodation. One of Mr.
Spurgeon's first deacons, a worthy of whom little
Is now to be learned, was named King, and for a
time Mr. King was the Pastor^s right-hand man.
He has long since gone home to heaven. In
those days the village bore an evil name on
account of the drunkenness and profligacy which
abounded ; now the inebriate appeared to be
sobered, while transgressors of other sorts were
awed into propriety. Because they could see
that he was earnest and faithful, and had a kind
heart, the most d^^aded of characters liked the
new preacher, in spite of his terrible straight*
forwardness in denouncing all kinds of evil
Mr. Coe remembered the sermons of those days ;
and one especially — * How wilt thou do In the
swelling of Jordan ? " — ^with its terrific warnings
and solemn appeals, could never be effaced from
memoiy. According to our informant It was

46 Reminiscences of WcUerbecuh.

truly wonderful how, thus early, Mr. Spurgeoo
thundered judgment against the sinner. After
he had mellowed a little he seemed to grow
milder; but, taking him for all in all, the like
had never been heard in Cambridgeshire before.
Though a thorough Calvinist, whose doctrines
some thought at times to be rather high, his
views at the outset were substantially the same
as those preached to-day at the Tabernacle. He
was from the first as faithful to ministers as
to ordinary people, telling those who preached
nothing save Election, without ever warning the
sinner, that he should not like to stand in their
shoes.

In the meantime, Deacon Coe was passing
through one of the most enjoyable experiences
of his life ; and his pleasure was only lessened by
the consciousness that the sunshine could not last
If friends mentioned the matter to him, Deacon
Coe would shake his head in his characteristic
expressive manner, and remark, *' He will not be
here long. God has a great work for him to do
somewhere. I don't know where, but he will not
be here long." Probably this opinion was shared
by others in the little community ; at all events,
the people seem to have made much of their
youthful pastor, and to have hotly competed
among themselves for the honour of according

Dining ojU an Sundays. 47

him a genuine hospitality. So numerous were
the invitations to dinner that he never, during his
tenure of office, went twice to the same place, the
poor as well as the rich being allowed to take
their turn. Thus, at a certain village lived a
quaint worthy who was not despised on account
of his poverty, and an invitation to take refresh-
ment was accepted At dinner a large pudding
was placed on the table, and after the host had
taken about a quarter of the same on his own
plate he pushed the dish across the table with,
•* Now, friend, help yourself."

One or two of the Pastor's adventures during
these early interesting years may be narrated.
Much pleasure has been experienced in recover-
ing them, and they will serve as material for a
future biography.

At a certain date in the 3rear 1853 Mr
Spurgeon was appointed to preach the anniversary
sermons at a village chapel in the vicinity of
Waterbeach, where the pastor was an octogenarian,
a fine specimen of the old-fashioned school of
dry, respectable, and orthodox ministers. The old
gentleman adopted this course because he had
heard of his young brother's popularity, although
he had not seen his face, and he desired to attract
a full congregation. When the preacher of the
day arrived on the ground his extremely youthful

48 Rifmniscences of WaterbMck.

appearance created anything but a . favourable
impression on the white-headed pastor who had
proclaimed the gospel in the neighbourhood
during forty years. ** How do 3rou do» Mr. — — ^ ?
Fve come to preach )rour anniversary sermons^"
said the new comer, expecting the usual welcome.
* Ugh I ** replied the other, looking up somewhat
disconcerted, ^ Vm none the better for seeing yau^
Thinking that he was in a dilemma, and that the
anniversary would be a failure, the old pastor rose,
and, pacing the room, gave expression to his
impatience. ** Tut, tut I a pretty kettle of fish ;
boys going up and down the country preaching
before their mother's milk is well out of theit
mouths.^ To the visitor all this naturally sounded
like somewhat strong language, and he inwardly
resolved that the veteran should hear of the
matter in another place. In the meantime the
crisis appeared to be mil the more serious on
account of the numbers of people who were flock-
ing into the village from all directions. As the
venerable pastor remarked, they were coming in
carts, they were coming in chaises, and they were
coming in buggies; there would be an over-
flowing congregation. From Mn Spurgeon's
standpoint there was nothing that could be done
other than for him to do his best, and to look for
the blessing of God : but this was so far from

Ah Incredulous Veteran. \^

being satisfactory to the pastor that he went about
the village still expressing his disgust at the idea
of boys being sent abroad to preach. The
chapel was crowded at the time of service ; but
instead of )nelding pleasure this fact seemed to
make the occasion still more unlucky. At first
the old pastor retired into the background, where
he could not be seen. A hymn was sungi and
the prayer was not quite what the judicious would
have expected from a mere boy. Mr. Spurgeon
read Proverbs xvi., and when he came to **A
hoary head Is a crown of glory,'' he showed that,
Soloirion or no Solomon, it was not alwa3rs sa
There were tongues in some hoary heads which
could not be civil to the boy who came to preach.
Rudeness gave no glory. Then reading further-^
if it be found in the way of righteousness—^e
showed that Solomon was right after all, for
unless this were the case a man might as weU
have red hair as white for a crown. When the
sermon was over^ the aged pastor, who had long
since come forth from his hiding-place, walked up
the pulpit stairs, opened the door, and as the boy-
preacher descended he received a smart, playful
slap on the loins, accompanied with the com-
plimentary remark, ^You are the sauciest dog
that ever barked in a pulpit** histead of com-
plaining of his ^ supply," Mr. ^ now went, first

50 Reminiscences of Waterbecuh.

to one and then another, expressing his wondei
and delight, seeing such an extraordinary youth
had appeared in their midst

The above is an example of the mistakes that
may be made by those who too readily despise
a preacher's youth ; and, according to Deacon
Coe, Mr. Spurgeon's trials in this respect were
exceptionally heavy ; but neither in youth nor
later on in life did he ever retaliate.

There were "characters'* to be found at Water-
beach in those days, and among them was a man
who, although he was worth some thousands of
pounds^ was at last buried in his own garden
''to save expense." On a certain Sabbath morn-
ing this individual placed seven shillings and
sixpence in the Pastor's hand with some such
remark as, ^ Please accept this ; you want a hat''
On the following Sunday he brought an addi-
tional half-crown. ^ What is this for ? ^ asked
Mr. Spurgeon, surprised at receiving a supple-
mental offering. Then came a singular confession
— ^ Last week the Lord told me to give you
ten shillings ; but I kept back half-a-crown, and
there it is." The tradition in Waterbeach is» that
a hat was purchased with this money.

On a certain summer evening Mr. Spurgeon had
engaged to preach at Teversham, which lies a
short distance from Waterbeach ; but before hf

An Adventure in a Storm. 51

Muld reach his destination the sky darkened* and
A severe thunder-storm burst over the country.
While passing a cottage on the road a woman
was observed to be alarmed and in sore distress
on account of the tempest ; and not liking to
pass on and leave a fellow-creature in trouble,
Mr. Spurgeon entered the house, read a few
verses, then prayed, and so comforted the woman
while the storm continued. Having done this
piece of service, he proceeded to Teversham to
fulfil the engagement ; but found that the chapel
was closed and dark, for people were not ex-
pecting a sermon on account of the tempest Mr.
Spurgeon wore a waterproof coat, and on entering
the village he divested himself of this, because
the smooth surface seemed to reflect the vivid
flashes of lightning in a way that might alarm
the timid. He then went round from door to
door, and told the people there would be a
service, and advised them to assemble in the
meeting-house. The summons was obeyed with
alacrity, the sermon was preached, and when all
was over the young pastor started on his home-
ward walk to Cambridge, a distance of four miles
•• A Wesleyan Minister," writing about twent>
years ago, in speaking of Mr. Spurgeon's early
days, remarks : " He removed from Newmarket
to Cambridge in the capacity of usher to his old

$t Reminiscences of Waterbeack.

friend and former tutor, Henry Leeding. Here
both his earthly comforts and religious privileges
were increased He now began publicly to
exhort, and united himself with a society called
the Lay Preachers* Association, connected with
the church in St Andrew's Street, formerly under
the pastorate of the illustrious Robert HalL At
a little village called Teversham, in a cottage
some miles from Cambridge, he preached his
first sermon, when only sixteen years of age.
His preaching from the beginning was highly
acceptable, and his sermons were illustrated by
geography and astronomy . . . and, to his praise
be it recorded, the common people heard him
gladly. But he was pre-eminently liked by the
members of a small church at a village called
Waterbeach, who, perceiving this germ of un-
common talents, invited him to become their
pastor. And here, in a rude chapel made out
of a bam, with a high pitched roof, he preached
every Sabbath in the forenoon and afternoon.
When requested to preach also in the evening,
he modestly replied, ^I cannot always preach
three times, for I am not so strong as a man.**
It would have been a satisfaction to many who
are now interested in taking a retrospect if the
sermons of Mr. Spurgeon's earliest days had been
preserved. There was a time when he himself

Early Sermons. 53

thought of presenting the public vrith a selection,
for in 1857 b^ w^-ote ; * I shall soon issue a
volume of my earliest productions while pastor
at Waterbeach, and would now bespeak for It
a favourable reception." We are not aware that
this publication ever appeared.

Such are a few of the things associated with
Waterbeach which I was enabled to recover
through the kindness of friends on the spot and
from others. The church was found to be in
a flourishing condition, and the stipend of the
pastor was probably double what it was in Mr.
Spurgeon's time.

To these, however, may be added the following^
relating to these times, and told by Mr. Spurgeon
himself in The Spare Half Hour .^—

^ Having to preach at one of the village stations
of the Cambridge Lay Preachers' Association, I
walked slowly In a meditative frame of mind over
Midsummer Common to the little wooden bridge
which leads to Chesterton, and in the midst of
the common I was startled by what seemed a loud
voice, but which may have been a singular
illusion ; whichever it was, the impression was
vivid to an intense degree : I seemed very dis-
tinctly to hear the words, 'Seekest thou great
things for thyself ? Seek them not I ' This led
me to look at my position from another point of

54 Reminiscences of WaterbecuK

view, and to challenge my motives and intentions.
I remembered the poor but loving people to
whom I ministered, and the souls which had been
given me in my humble charge, and although at
that time I anticipated obscurity and poverty as
the result of the resolve, yet I did there and
then solemnly renounce the offer of collegiate
instruction, determining to abide for a season at
least with my people, and to remain preaching
the Word so long as I had strength to do it
Had it not been for those words, in all probability
I had never been where and what I now am. I
was conscientious in my obedience to the monition,
and I have never seen cause to regret it.

** Waiting upon the Lord for direction will
never fail to afford us timely intimations of His
will ; for though the ephod is no more worn by a
ministering priest, the Lord still guides His people
by His wisdom, and orders all their paths in love ;
and in times of perplexity. He makes them to
hear a voice behind ^hem, saying, *This is the
way, walk ye in it'

2^1 M

FIRST SUNDA YS HT LOI^DOIf.

•«

Btfan 09^ grmi ackitvtmtntt aomt measure of . • • depressioi
!■ naj vmuL Surveying tbe difficulties before us, our hearu sink
within .m. The aons of Anak stalk before us, and we are as grass-
hoppers in oar own sight in their presence. The cities of Canaan are
waJled up to heaTen, and who are we that we should hope to capture
them? We ate ready to cast down our weapons and take to our heels.
Nfaievefa ii a great dty, and we would flee unto Tarshish sooner than
encoiinter its noisy crowds. Already we look for a ship which may
bear na quietly away from the terrible scene, and only a dread o<
tempest restrains our recreant footsteps. Such was my experience
when I lirM became a pastor in London. My success appalled me ;
and the thought of the careef which it seemed to open up, so far from
dating me, cast me faito the lowest depth, out of which I uttered my
misermt and found no room for 9^ gloria in excelsis. Who was I that
I should continue to lead so great a multitude ? I would betake me to
my Tillage obscurity, or emigrate to America, and find a solitary rest
iB the back woods where I might be sufficient for the things which
woold be demanded of me. . • . I fdt myself a mere child, and
trembled as I heard tbe Toioe whidi said, * Arise, and thresh tbf
■MMmtahis, and make them as cfaaft' "'^Ltchtrtt $9 wy ShuUmU, I ty^

m.

THE FIRST SUNDA YS IN LONDON.

\ Tl 7* HAT people call accident is frequently the
' ^ course of events as pre-ordained by Grod ;
and the truth of this remark was strikingly proved
in the manner of Mr. Spurgeon's general rearing.
The more carefully we look into the surrounding
circumstances of his early life, the more clearly
shall we see that all things were working together
for good to equip the child and the youth for his
arduous life-work that lay beyond. His parents,
and the generation preceding them, were not only
Christians of an old-fashioned type, they were
professors who made no secret of their Puritanic
sympathies. Even the prophet Samuel could
hardly have enjoyed more tender nurture and
careful training to fit him for future service
in the Lord's house. The father was a preacher,
so also was the grandfather ; and one of Mr.
Spurgeon's earliest recollections belongs to his
sitting on a hassock in the study of the latter,
looking at the missionary pictures in The Evan-

58 Th$ First Sundays $m London.

galical MagoMtng^ not ever presuming to make a
noise, lest grandfather should be interrupted in
making his sermon, and thus be unable to preach,
when no good would be done, and Charles would
be the offender. On account of the uncompro-
mbing old-fashioned notions entertained by the
family fai religious matters, the opinion that the
Pastor commenced work as a lame scholar may
have gained currency. The truth is, that at a
very early age his scholarship was not only far
above the average, but very conspicuous to all
who had ty^% to discern. This happens to be
a subject on which we can speak with authority ;
for some time ago Mr. Spurgeon made some
passing remarks relating to his former tutor, which
were quite new and conclusive. During some
years past the gentleman in question had resided
in a southern suburb, unknown to his former
scholar ; and, like some others of his profession,
found the new Board-schools serious drawbacks
to his day-schooL He is, however, a thoroughly
able teacher, who would be invaluable to anyone
who should seek out and obtain the benefit of
his instructions. This gentleman, who may be
regarded as a thoroughly competent judge, held
very clear and decided views in regard to the
attainments of his quondam pupil. He was in a
position to set those right who went about retail-

Early Education. 59

ing the news that Spurgeon was no scholar ; for
in point of fact, the said Spurgeon, as a mere
youth, was one of the most competent scholars
in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and one who
could easily have taken a degree at the Univer^ty
without undergoing the process of cramming.
While he spoke like a man who was reasonably
proud of his former charge, the venerable tutor
was not of the genus which can tolerate cross-
examination or interviewings.

Perhaps it never occurred to those who spread
the report about Mr. Spurgeon being no scholar,
that at the time of his first coming to London
he was very competently earning a livelihood by
his scholarship. In addition to the Waterbeach
church he received a salary as usher in a school
at Cambridge, and afterwards salary as tutor to
a couple of youths in the same neighbourhood.
Very few indeed of our Nonconformist students
at seventeen could show the same amount of
knowledge ; and his habits of reading, in pulling
the best things out of books ^by the hair oi
their heads," enabled him to rapidly increase
his stores.

It should also be generally known that Mr.
Spurgeon was popular even as a boy ; for when
in his turn he would address the Sunday-school
at Newmarket, many members of the church

6o The First Sundays in London.

woald secrete themselves in any convenient hole
or corner within earshot, and there eagerly listen
to his earliest efforts. On the other hand, there
were those among the Nonconformists of the
town who, through being unable to see excellence
in any form, supposed that the young preacher
was not only not a genius, but decidedly below
the average in every respect When he first
came to New Park Street Chapel there arose
a great chatter among the Baptists of a certain
important town. Said one leading elder to a
brother officer of a similar calibre to himself,
•* They have invited Charley Spurgeon to London,
and they are actually going to pay him jfi50
a-year!" A more curious misjudgment never
came out of Essex ; and to add to its impressive-
ness, the words were drawn out to unnatural
length, as though the speaker's vocabulary were
as elastic as his notions were modest.

A good deal has been said at different times
about Mr. Spurgeon's conversion ; and some in-
genious endeavours have been m^de to trace the
preacher of the sermon which was the means of
bringing peace to his soul. All that is really
known, however, about the preacher is, that he
was a Primitive Methodist in Colchester, and a
working man. The things spoken about were
the end of all things ; the most unlikely people

Mr. Spurgeofis Conversion. 61

to be saved ; the most despairing ; the most sin-
ful ; and then it was shown that salvation is not
by works, but by faith — ^the soul must look at
Christ, and do so in a way corresponding to the
perception of natural objects by the natural eye.
After hearing this sermon he experienced the
peace of God which passes all understanding, and
went forth in strength to begin his life-work.

How Mr. Spurgeon first came to London is
a question that has not always been correctly
answered, and the causes which worked t(^ether
to bring about the Pastor's removal to an enlarged
sphere of labour are known only to a few persons.
Let me narrate the circumstances as concisely as
possible.

There can be no doubt that Waterbeach was
a very comfortable sphere of labour for a young
man like Mr. Spurgeon. Though the people were
homely they had warm hearts, and they cordially
appreciated their pastor's energy and eloquence
It is not impossible that some among the good
farmers and simple peasants who crowded the
chapel may have reckoned on a life-long union.
At any rate, it is unreasonable to suppose that
everybody detected in their accomplished pastor
the surprising talents that he really possessed
Others were more far-sighted ; they were happy ;
their church flourished ; but, alas i it was con-

63 Th$ First Sundays in London.

traiy to the ordinary run of things for the great
outside world — a selfish world, as it must have
appeared to the Baptists of Waterbcach— to
allow so unequal a union to exist for lack of
a suitable opening being found elsewhere.

The fact was, that an ancient church, and
formerly a congregation of some importance in
the capital, was in great straits for want of a
pastor. Two centuries before, that church had
been formed by a band of Puritan Baptists, the
first pastor of whom we have any account being
William Rider. The divines who afterwards
successively held the pastorate, during a great
number of years, were all men of power and
celebrity : Benjamin Keach is still kept in re-
membrance by his Metaphors ; Benjamin Stinton
was equally worthy ; John Gill was a celebrated
commentator ; John Rippon was the compiler of
the hymn-book named after him ; Joseph Angus
is a successful tutor and author of our own times ;
James Smith was an uneducated genius of fervent
piety. In the chequered history of this old
church it has been a favourable omen for the
pastor to be chosen at the age of nineteen. It
was so with John Gill, and also with his suc-
cessor, John Rippon, who were the only pastors
during the unusually long period of one hundred
and seventeen years. Mr. Spurgeon was of this

A Youth of Nineteen. 63

same auspicious age of nineteen when some one
carried word to the despairing deacons at Neu
Park Street Chapel that there was a young mati
making some stir at Waterbeach, and it was just
possible he might resuscitate their causCi

The church at this date was slowly dying a
natural death, and it was worth while to grasp at
a straw if, thereby, the threatened death could be
averted. It so happened that Mr. Olney, one of
the deacons at New Park Street thirty-three years
agO| was acquainted with a gentleman of the
name of Gould, and on a certain occasion Mr.
Gould's nephew happened to look in at a Baptist
Chapel in Cambridge, at which a meeting was
being held. On the platform were a couple of
elderly ministers and a full-faced youth of more
tender years. In due course the younger man
made a speech, and, because he spoke as a
Calvinist, what he said had the effect of highly
displeasing those who considered that they were
his elders and his betters. They had not even
the good sense to keep their anger to themselves,
but each had his say. One thought that Mr.
Spurgeon should tarry at Jericho till his beard
was grown ; the other wished to know vhy the
young Baptist had left his few sheep in the
wilderness ; he had surely come up to see the
battle. A reply was made, and one which was

64 Th$ First Sundays in London*

very characteristic of the speaker at that time;
but unfortunately this has not been recovered.

In course of time the news spread that a young
Baptist minister had been snubbed down in Cam-
bridgeshire ; and, as the declining church at New
Park Street was then in want of a pastor, here
was an opportunity to secure a promising man.
** I wish you would send for him, I believe he
would suit you/' remarked the informant, and the
deacon at once felt disposed to make the experi-
ment recommended Mr. Olney wrote at once
to Mr. Spurgeon, who, however, manifested no
particular anxiety to visit the great metropolis.
When he first received the letter he thought a
mistake had been made, and thus sent on the
epistle to another pastor of the same name ; but
it was at once returned with the intimation — ^ It
is not a mistake : you are the man intended"
Still he was in no hurry to settle in London.
Only a short time before, while walking near
Chesterton, he had been startled by what seemed
like a voice speaking, ** Seekest thou great things
for thyself ? seek them not ;'' and this remarkable
circumstance, which fixed the young preacher's
determination not to enter Stepney College, may
have checked the rising of any ambitious aspira«
tions connected with a London settlement At
all events he did not consent to preach at New

An Unpromtstng Outlook. 65

Park Street Chapel until an application for him
to do so had been repeatedly made ; and when
at length he came forth from the seclusion of
Cambridgeshire, he came in no very sanguine
mood. Nor was this a matter for surprise. The
Church at New Park Street was not so flourishing
as it had been ; and in the estimation of out-
siders^ who were disposed to take a desponding
view of the situation, nothing very far short of a
miracle could save the cause from ultimate decay.
There were deacons of piety and substance, and
a congregation of a hundred or more ; but, not-
withstanding, what man of common prudence^ or
of common sense— especially at nineteen years of
age — ^would be likely to hazard leading the for-
lorn hope of filling twelve hundred empty seats,
or of imparting life to a cause which was richer
in illustrious memories than in present resources ?
But Mr. Spurgeon was invited, and, to the great
delight of the church, he accepted the invitation.
When he entered the vestry he asked which was
Dr. Gill's chair, and on seating himself in that
interesting relic he exclaimed, ''He must needs
go through Samaria.'' This showed the Calvin-
istic tendencies of his mind, and also the de«
sponding view he took of a London settlement.
''I knew that I should be of no use to you,**
he added, ''but yoo would have me come.*

66 Tks First Sundays in London.

On the Sabbath morning of Mr. Spurgeon'a
first preaching at New Park Street, only the
average congregation was present, and many,
when for the first time they cast their eyes on
his youthful features, were not cheered* ^ What
a boy I ** was the thought uppermost in the minds
of not a few judicious souls. His first text was
James i. 17 : ** Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above,** etc Was it to be expected
that a boy could turn that valley of dry bones
into a garden of the Lord }

In the evening the congregation had very
perceptibly increased, but even then it was only
by degrees that the staid members gained con-
fidence. When he turned to Revelation vii. and
began to read, and then to expound, thoughts
of misgiving arose in the hearts of some. What
an absurd thing, mused one experienced Chris-
tian who was present, for such a boy to turn to
such a passage as that of the hundred and forty
and four thousanfl, who were sealed unto ever-
lasting life. He became reassured, however, as
the preacher proceeded with his comments.
Then came the text and the sermon : * They
are without fault before the throne of God.*
It would be impossible to describe the emotions
of the congregation as the discourse proceeded,
and the preacher warmed with his subject One

An Original Style. 67

who was present assures us that the effect was
amazing. Nearly all the members of the old
church were at last raised from their condition
of despondency ; although it it possible that
some were present who could not all at once
become reconciled to the preacher's bold depar-
ture from pulpit conventionalities. From the
first the commenting struck people as being even
more extraordinary than the sermons.

After the service was ended, the congrq^tion
were too excited to leave the chapel and go
home. In all parts of the building they were
seen in groups conversing about what they had
heard, and of Mr. Spurgeon's eligibility for the
pastorate. The deacons had to come forth from
the vestry and promise that they would use their
endeavours to secure the young preacher. I have
also been informed that a church meeting was
arranged for to be held as soon as possible
when an invitation to Mr. Spurgeon to accept
the pastorate was adopted. The invitation was
unanimous with the exception of one dissentient
an elderly deacon, who quietly left immediately
after the pastor's settlement.

One other reminiscence of that memorable day
must be recorded. Mr. Thomas Olney, the senior
deacon, and his wife Unity — ^whose name is kept
in remembrance by one of the Orphanage houses

68 Th4 First Sundays in London.

at Stockwell — at that time resided at Croydon;
and, partly because she was an invalid, it was
not Mrs. Olne/s practice to attend New Park
Street Chapel when no one save a ^ nobody ^ was
to preach. On the occasion of Mr. Spurgeon's
first coming Mrs. Olney did not undertake the
journey from Croydon to Southwark, on account
dT what she judged to be very valid reasons.
Who was the preacher for the day ? Oh, nobody
but a young man from Waterbeach, in Cam-
bridgeshire — a little village, and the last place
under the sun likely to have an attractive
preacher for its pastor. When Mr. Olney
returned home in the middle of the day his face
beamed with pleasure, and the sparkle of his
eye told that his heart was filled with gladness.
At last when he spoke he said to his wife, ^ We
have such a wonderful young man come to preach
to-day; you must come to chapel to-night**
The old lady went to New Park Street as
desired, and the good impression produced on
her mind was as deep as it was lasting. ^ He
will do,** she said, on her return to Croydon,
and, with her own peculiar emphasis, ^ He will
do." Was not Mrs. Olney right ?

In addition to the above we must not over-
look the reminiscences which Mr. Spurgeon has
himself given in The Swerd and the Trowel for

A Mysterious Letter. 69

January 1879. The article is entitled "Twent)N
five Years Ago/' and the following are its
opening paragraphs, which directly refer to the
first visit to London in the last days of 1 85 3 »—
* Twenty 'five years ago we walked on a Sabbath
morning, according to our wont, from Cambridge
to the village of Waterbeach, in order to occupy
the pulpit of the little Baptist ChapeL It was a
country road, and there were four or five honest
miles of it, which we usually measured each
Sunday foot by foot, unless we happened to be
met by a certain little pony and cart which came
half way, but could not by any possibility venture
further, because of the enormous expense which
would have been incurred by driving through the
toll-gate at Milton. That winter's morning we
were all aglow with our walk, and ready for our
pulpit exercises. Sitting down in the table-pew,
a letter was passed to us bearing the postmark
of London. It was an unusual miiSsive, and was
opened with curiosity. It contained an invita-
tion to preach at New Park Street Chapel,
Southwark, the pulpit of which had formerly been
occupied by Dr. Rippon, — the very Dr. Rippon
whose hymn-book was then before us upon the
table — the great Dr. Rippon, out of whose Selec-
tion we were about to choose hymns for oar
worship. The late Dr. Rippon seemed to hover

JO Tk$ First Sundays in London.

over us as an immeasurably great man, the glory
of whose name covered New Park Street Chapel
and its pulpit with awe unspeakable. We quietly
passed the letter across the table to the deacon
who gave out the hymns, observing that there
was some mistake, and that the letter must have
been intended for a Mr. Spurgeon who preached
somewhere down in Norfolk. He shook his head,
and observed that he was afraid there was no
mistake, as he always knew that his minister
would be run away with by some large church
or other, but that he was a little surprised that
the Londoners should have heard of him quite
so soon. * Had it been Cottenham, or St Ives,
or Huntingdon,' said he, *I should not have
wondered at all ; but going to London is rather
a great step from this little place/ He shook
his head very gravely ; but the time was come
for us to look out the hymns, and therefore the
letter was put away, and, as far as we can
remember, was for the day quite forgotten, even
as a dead man out of mind.

^ On the following Monday an answer was
sent to London, informing the deacon of the
church at Park Street that he had fallen into
an error in directing his letter to Waterbeach,
for the Baptist minister of that village was veiy
little more than nineteen years of age, and quite

Adventures at a Boarding- House. 71

unqualified to occupy a London pulpit In due
time came another epistle, setting forth that the
former letter had been written in perfect know-
ledge of the young preacher's age, and had been
intended for him, and him alone. The request
of the former letter was repeated and pressed,
a date mentioned for the journey to London,
and the place appointed at which the preacher
would find lodging. That invitation was accepted,
and as the result thereof the boy preacher of th^
Fens took his post in London.

•• Twenty-five years a^o— and yet It seems but
yesterday — we lodged for the night at a boarding-
house in Queen Square, Bloomsbury, to which
the worthy deacon directed us. As we wore a
huge black satin stock, and used a blue handker-
chief with white spots, the young gentiemen of
that boarding-house marvelled greatly at the
youth from the country who had come up to
preach in London, but who was evidently in the
condition known as verdant green. They were
mainly of the evangelical church persuasion, and
seemed greatly tickled that the country lad should
be a preacher. They did not propose to go and
hear the youth, but they seemed to tacitly agree
to encourage him after their own fashion, and we
were encouraged accordingly. What tales were
narrated of the great divines of the metropolis,

72 Tk$ First Sundays in Londm.

and their congregations I One we remember had
a thousand city men to hear him, another had his
church filled with thoughtful people, such as could
hardly be matched all over England, while a third
had an immense audience, almost entirely com-
posed of the young men of London, who were
spell-bound by his eloquence. The study which
these men underwent in composing their sermons,
their herculean toils in keeping up their congre-
gations, and the matchless oratory which they
exhibited on all occasions, were duly rehearsed in
our hearing, and when we were shown to bed in
a cupboard over the front door, we were not in
an advantageous condition for pleasant dreams.
Park Street hospitality never sent the young
minister to that far-away hired room again, but
assuredly the Saturday evening in a London
boarding-house was about the most depressing
agency which could have been brought to bear
upon our spirit. On the narrow bed we tossed
in solitary misery, and found no pity. Pitiless
was the grind of the cabs in the street, pitiless
the recollection of the young city clerks whose
grim propriety had gazed upon our rusticity with
Bttch amusement, pitiless the spare room which
scarce afforded space to kneel, pitiless even the
gas-lamps which seemed to wink at us as they
flickered amid the December darkness. We had

A Memorable London Walk. 73

no friend in all that city full of human beings,
but we felt among strangers and foreigners, hoped
to be heli>sd through the scrape into which we
had been brought, and to escape safely to the
serene abodes of Cambridge and Waterbeach.
which then seemed to be Eden itself.

^ TwetUy-five years ago it was a clear, cold
morning, and we wended our way along Holbom
Hill towards Blackfriars and certain tortuous lanes
and alleys at the foot of Southwark Bridge
Wondering, praying, fearing, hoping, believing,—
we felt all alone and yet not alone. Expectant
of Divine help, and inwardly borne down by our
sense of the need of it, we traversed a dreary
wilderness of brick to find the spot where our
message must needs be delivered. One word
rose to our lip many times, we scarce know why
— •• He must needs go through Samaria.* The
necessity of our Lord's journeying in a certain
direction is no doubt repeated in His servants,
and as our present journey was not of our seeking,
and had been by no means pleasing so far as it
had gone — the one thought of a " needs be " for
it seemed to overtop every other. At sight of
Park Street Chapel we felt for a moment amazed
at our own temerity, for it seemed to our eyes
to be a large, ornate, and imposing structure,
suggesting an audience wealthy arid critical, and

74 Tk$ First Sundays in London.

far removed from the humble folk to whom oof
ministry had been sweetness and light It was
early, so there were no persons entering, and
when the set time was fully come there were no
signs to support the suggestion raised by the
exterior of the building, and we felt that by God's
help we were not yet out of our depth, and were
not likely to be with so small an audience. The
Lord helped us very graciously, we had a happy
Sabbath in the pulpit, and spent the intervals
with warm-hearted friends ; and when at night
we trudged back to the Queen Square narrow
lodging we were not alone, and we no longer
looked on Londoners as flinty-hearted barbarians.
Our tone was altered, we wanted no pity of any-
one, we did not care a penny for the young
gentlemen lodgers and their miraculous ministers,
nor for the grind of the cabs, nor for anything
else under the sun. The lion had been looked
at all round, and his majesty did not appear to
be a tenth as majestic as when we had only
heard his roar miles away.** J

So far as I have been sufficiently fortunate to
recover them, the incidents related are those
which were associated with Mr. Spurgeon's first
Sabbafh-da/s work in London in the fall of
the year 1853. The congregations immediately
Increased until the chapel was densely thronged

Daring Originality. 75

at every service ; and the building was then
enlarged to accommodate some eighteen hundred
people. The more they knew of their Pastor the
more did the church and congregation learn to
appreciate his public service and personal worth ;
but it was otherwise with outsiders of the same
denomination, who were either too undisceming
or too jealous to see and acknowledge the
truth.

There were many who were still partial to
old-fashioned ways, and these had misgivings.
Could they only get another Rippon all might
yet be well — the tide of prosperity would return ;
but what could be made of the bold Essex youth
of nineteen, whose daring originality was shocking
to people who had beheld the propriety reflected
in the portraits of Gill and Rippon ?

It is an interesting question. What did the
preacher appear like at this time? The query
is thus answered by an American quarterly for
the year 1859: ^He was unpractised in either
the art of oratory or of preaching, his public
efforts having consisted of addresses before
Sunday-schools, and a very brief but successful
pastorate over an obscure Baptist church at
Waterbeach. Id personal appearance he was
not prepossessing ; in style he was plain, prac-
tical, simple ; in manner, rude, bold, ^otisticaL

76^ TAe First Sundays in London.

approaching to the bigoted ; in theology, a
deep-dyed Calvinist ; in church relations, an
uncompromising Baptist We could scarcely
imagine a more unpromising list of qualifications^
or rather disqualifications, for public favour."

Such was the man, as viewed by a discrimi*
nating judge at a distance ; what were his
associations at home and his prospects in the
metropolis? The chapel in New Park Street
seated twelve hundred persons, and for some
time past a sixth part of that number made an
average congregation. The revival was, of course,
immediate. The good souls who were present
at the first scantily-attended service, and who,
according to their nervous temperament, professed
to be shocked or edified, carried the news of
the altered aspect of affairs to others, and thus
helped to bring together ever-increasing crowds.
£ver after this day of small things the aforesaid
good souls were sorely inconvenienced by having
less elbow-room, and a more limited supply of
pure air, than they had been accustomed to enjoy
in olden time. The chapel became suddenly
crowded as no other London chapel had ever
been known to be — that is to say, the throng,
which weekly filled aisles and pews, manifested
a determined sort of eagerness to see and hear
the preacher. This was the aspect of affairs io

No Desire for a London Settlement. 77

London when the deacons said, ^ Come amongst
us for six months."

Waterbeach was, at least, a sufficient contrast
to all this excitement and popularity for Mr.
Spurgeon to call it, on his return, ^ this little
Garden of Eden." He loved his people ; he
experienced uncomfortable sensations in being
called upon to leave them ; and, had not poverty
denied him freedom of action, he would ^*have
turned a deaf ear to any request to leave them."
As, however, the little church was unable to
afford him adequate support, he was impelled
forward by necessity. The engagement at Water-
beach could be terminated at any time by either
party after the expiration of a three-months'
notice ; but pastor and people were bound
together in closer union than could ever have
been effected by legal forms. At the outset, he
showed no symptoms of being carried away by
that amazing popularity which immediately
confronted him. In a letter to Mr. Lowe,
he commended the people on account of their
prudence in allotting an ample term of proba-*
tion, while at the same time he declined to
bind himself for longer than three months. If
all progressed well, the engagement could easily
be prolonged ; if otherwise, he ^ would only be
a * supply' — liable to a fortnight's dismissal or

78 TA$ First Sundays im London.

resignation/ The deacons at London said,
^ Come at once ; " those at Waterbeach were
quite averse to so sudden a termination of their
connection, and in this respect carried their point
The regular pastorate of Mr. Spurgeon in London
may be said to have begun on the 27 th of April,
1854. He immediately achieved an unexampled
popularity for one so young ; but neither pastor
nor people could have had even a faint idea as
to what lay before them in the future.

As this is not a complete history, it will not be
necessary to give a connected account of subse-
quent events. These are told by Mr. Spurgeon
himself in his book on the Tabernacle, and
anything which is included in that volume is not
likely to be news to readers of these pages. How
the old chapel at New Park Street became crowded
so as to warrant an adjournment to Exeter Hall,
and subsequently to the Music Hall at the Royal
Surrey Gardens, where an appalling accident
saddened the church and prostrated the preacher,
are things too well known to need recapitula-
tion.

In •* The Treasury of David * under Psalm xci.,
there is a less-known reminiscence of the eventful
first year in London, which is too characteristic
to be omitted. The country, it will be remem-
bered, was stricken with the fever engendered

A Street Adventure. 79

by the Russian war, when the sickness referred
to was raging:—-

''In the year i8S4i when I had scarcely been
in London twelve months, the neighbourhood in
which I laboured was visited by Asiatic cholera,
and my congregation suffered from its inroads.
Family after family summoned me to the bedsides
of the smitten, and almost every day I was called
to visit thd grave. I gave myself up with youth-
ful ardour to the visitation of the sick, and was
sent for from all comers of the district by persons
of all ranks and religions. I became weary in
body and sick at heart My friends seemed fall-
ing one by one, and I felt or fancied that I was
sickening like those around me. A little more
work and weeping would have laid me low among
the rest. I felt that my burden was heavier than
I could bear, and I was ready to sink under it.
As God would have it, I was returning mourn-
fully home from a funeral, when my curiosity led
me to read a paper which was wafered up in a
shoemaker's window in the Dover Road. It did
not look like a trade announcement, nor was it ;
for it bore in a good bold handwriting these
words : — * Because thou hast made the Lord^ which
is my refuge^ even the Most High^ thy habitation^
there shall no evil befall thee^ neither shall emy
plague come nigh thy dwelling! The effect upon

8o The First Sundays in London.

my heart was Immediate. Faith appropriated the
passage as her own. I felt secure, refreshed, girt
with immortality. I went on with my visitation
of the dying in a calm and peaceful spirit ; I felt
no fear of evil, and I suffered no harm. The
Providence which moved the tradesman to place
those verses in his window I gratefully acknow-
ledge, and in the remembrance of its marvellous
power I adore the Lord my God.**

That a special Providence watched over the
youthful pastor during the trials of that first
terrible summer in London, no one will doubt
after reading of the above adventure Only a
man with a large admixture of heroism in his
nature could have faced the ordeal to come off in
the end a conqueror.

When Mr. Spurgeon first settled in London
in the spring of 1854, the news of his success
soon reached the ears of quiet-living folks in
every rural nook in England. Well do I re-
member how his fame found its way into the
secluded Somersetshire village where I was then
residing, when of course the village politicians
each formed an independent opinion. What a
talk there was about his work, and about the
daring originality of his manner of doing itl
The sermons were read with avidity ; for neither
the young, who were ready to welcome something

TAe News Reaches the Pr minces. 8i

neW| nor the more elderly, who still venerated
William Jay and John Angell James as models
of pulpit propriety, had ever seen words put
t<^ther in such a way before. When Macaulay
first appeared in The Edinburgh Review the
question was, ** Where did he get that style ?^
and a similar query might have been started when
the new preacher suddenly burst upon the world
in 1854. In a certain instance a pastor went to
one of his brethren who served a church four
miles away, and, having mentioned the fact that
he had read one of Mr. Spurgeon's latest sermons,
he added, ^ but he can never keep on like this.''
The reference was to the prodigality of thought
and to the number of illustrations diffused through-
out the discourses ; and as the p ublication pro-
ceeded the old worthy thought he had discovered
a falling off, as he had predicted there would be.
Persons of strong sense and penetrative judg-
ment were enabled at once to see Mr. Spurgeon's
worth, but weaker men required a longer time
for their opinions to become settled. What was
most surprising was the singular behaviour of one
or two leading Baptist ministers in London, whose
open hostility to the man who was manifestly
raised up for a great work had the effect of
making both themselves and their clique ridiculous.
Aa It was with individuals, so was it with the

82 Tke First Sundays in London.

newspapers. The weaklings hesitated— -they were
neither supporters nor detractors of Mr. Spurgeon ;
but stronger natures, such as the Thi Morning
Advertiser^ assumed a bold front, and gained con-
siderable credit in the long run for the sagacity
which enabled them to arrive at a common-sense
decision.

Though he differed on many doctrinal points
from Mr. Spurgeon, the late Dr. Binney was able
from the first to perceive the great talents of
the young preacher. On a particular occasion, as
I have learned, when he was visiting one of
the Independent colleges for the purpose of
giving a lecture to the students, the Weighhouse
pastor happened to hear some disparaging re-
marks concerning Mr. Spurgeon from certain of
the students. The lecturer asked them to be
quiet, to listen to what he himself had to say oo
the matter, and addressed them in such words
as these : ^ I myself have enjoyed some amount
of popularity; I have always been able to draw
together a congregation ; but in the person
of Mr. Spurgeon we see a young man, be he
who he may, and come whence he will, who at
twenty-four hours' notice can command a con«
gregation of twenty thousand people. Now, I
have never been able to do that, and I never knew
of anyone else who could do it^ Mr. Spuigeoa

What Dr. Binn$y Said. 83

could do greater things than Dr. Btnney, or all
the eflTorts of the students combined could do, and
00 that account there was wisdom in remaining
quiet» and withholding railing words.

One of the earliest sermons preached by Mr.
Spurgeon in London was from the text, ** Fear
not, thou worm Jacob.^ It was a discourse of
great power, and was one which seemed at once
to establish the preacher's fame. It was, more-
over, one of the series which were to have been
probationaiy sermons ; but, in reality, it can
hardly be said that Mr. Spurgeon ever preached
any probationary sermons at alL His very first
Sabbath day's work in the metropolis settled the
matter of his unanimous call to the pastorate*

I have heard it said by one of its oldest
members that the church at New Park Street
was as much prepared for the reception of
Mr. Spurgeon by providence as Mr. Spurgeon was
prepared for the position. The church was in a
low condition, however ; and although there were
two hundred members, no one knew where to find
them. There was a good chapel, and there was
a staff of well-to-do deacons to second the efforts
of the pastor ; but had Mr. Spurgeon been an
optimist the outlook would have been discourag-
ing to the last degree.

When he suddenly became popular In London

84 The First Sundays in London.

applications for Mr. Spurgeon's services b^;an
to pour in from the provinces. His days were,
accordingly, days of travel and adventure, and his
own words, spoken in 1855, give a more vivid
picture of his experience at this time than any
other description. Referring to a northern tour
he said : ^ Many persons know that on my road
home I was exposed to very imminent danger. I
crossed the river Clyde in a ferry : the man who
bad the management of the boat had taken ' a
wee drap o' the cratur/ and was not able to
manage it at all, and had put twenty-six persons
into a boat that ought to have contained far less.
I have been informed by one or two ladies that
report was current that I was thrown into the
water, and fished up by the hair of my head.
Now, that was not sa We were simply in
danger, but by a little management and expostu-
lation, which was resented by oaths and curses,
we came safe to land. Thanks to that God who
both on sea and land cares for His people t I had
engaged to preach in Bradford, in Yorkshire. I
first made a journey to Lake Windermere, round
which I sailed, and greatly enjoyed the beauties
of its scenery. I went to Bradford, and on
Sabbath morning I found they had engaged the
music-hall, which holds, they say, a thousand
persons mor^ tb^ Exeter Hall. Instead of

Adventures in the North. 85

being able to contain the crowds who came on
Sunday, about as many had to go away as
were accommodated. In the evening the streets
presented a solid blockade of men and women.
The place was crammed to excess, and I had
scarcely room to walk about to deliver what I had
to say to the people. • • • I went to Stockton-
on-Tees, and there again preached the word of
God to a very numerous congregation. I
journeyed on still further, to Edinburgh, and in
Queen Street Hall, notwithstanding the most
pouring rains, more crowds were assembled.''
Thus in one town after another great crowds
were attracted, and on one occasion, in Glasgow,
it was said that twenty thousand persons went
away unable to obtain admission.

It was not long before the crowds in front of
New Park Street Chapel filled the street Then
Exeter Hall and Surrey Gardens' Hall were
successively taken, but more because they afforded
^ larger sphere of usefulness than from any other
reason. The profits from the services of the last-
named place aided in some considerable degree
the Tabernacle building fund. It is not gener-
ally known that the Tabernacle very narrowly
escaped being erected on leasehold land ; and that
what would have been a real disaster was pre-
vented by certain of the deacons refusing to sign

86 Tks First Sundays in London.

the buflding contract on such conditiont. The
site was in possession of the Fishmongen*
Company; and Mr. Joynson, of St Mary Cray,
became a main instrument under providence In
obtaining the freehold Thus, as we hope, Thb
Metropolitan Tabernacle can remain untO
the end of time as a monument of the sanctified
gfenius and earnest life-work of C H. Spurgeon.

PMRSONAL JaMINISCMNCMS.

"Our life hai been mainly spent In dirui reilgloiii tMcliinf , nad to
that woik we would dedicate our main strength ; bat men need also to
bear common eveiy-daj things spoken of in a religioas manner, for to
som^ of them this roundabout road is the onlj way to their hearts.
Theology is dull reading to the unconverted ; but mixed with a stofy,
or set forth by a witty saying, they will drink in a great amount of
religious truth and find no &ult They like their pills gilded, or at
least sugar-coated, and tf by that means they may ht really benefited,
who will grudge them Uie gilt or the sugar?"— Pn/Ms * Tki S/atv
IiaJf*ffomr.

• IV.

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.

WHAT others say about a man must be
estimated according to the personal worth
and s}rmpathies of the speakers ; but what a man
says about himself b sure, one way or the other,
to be a revelation of character. While no one
will defend egotism, it b possible for conceit or
spurious humility to conceal itself in a reticence,
foolish because studied and unnatural. He must
be a shrewd judge both of himself and others who
can constantly make capital of himself, while it is
still evident that self b not mentioned for the
sake of glorification. It must be evident to eveiy
observer that from the first Mr. Spurgeon has
been to himself an exhaustless book of illustra-
tion, many of the most telling things in hb
sermons and lectures being personal reminiscences.
Anecdotes of childhood and of later age are con-
tinually appearing, without any sign of the stock
becoming exhausted.

People are naturally interested in the childhood

90 Personal JUminiscenus.

of remarkable men ; and shrewd observers, like
John Foster, are glad to recover, so far as recovery
b possible, those early mind impressions which
came and went like fleeting clouds in the fresh
spring-time of life's opening days. Our first im-
pressions of the world are for the most part lost ;
but on this account we value more highly than
we should the fragments which remain. If he
had not himself narrated the fact, who could have
supposed that Mr. Spurgeon was ever fascinated
with the exciting sport of the hunting-field ? Yet
so it was ; the dogs, the horses, the horn-blowing,
the riders in red coats, constituted a picturesque
paraphernalia which had irresistible charms. Had
we, as inquisitive well-wishers, enquired in those
days what occupation Master Charles Haddon
Spurgeon would prefer as a life profession, the
reply would have come with smart readiness, ^ A
huntsman I a huntsman I ** Well may the man
exclaim as he looks back on such childish pre-
ferences, ^ A fine profession truly I ** but then
there is the unvarnished fact, as a child he ** always
felt a natural taste for that sort of business.**
Whenever the hounds were descried, they were
invariably followed at highest speed over fields,
hedges, and ditches, regardless of hazard. The
indulgence of this propensity once cost dear;
for, executing a market commission, the contents

Predilections of ChildkoocL 91

of the basket — rice, mustard, etc — ^were shaken
together into '' one awful mess." As anecdotes,
such things are interesting contributions ; but as
anecdotes merely they would never be told by
Mr. Spurgeon. Everything must point a moral
or serve as an illustration to clinch a religious
truth. The childish predilection for field sports
warns young men not to be too readily drawn
into the Christian ministry by outward things,
and thus resemble children who are captivated by
the holiday trappings of sportsmen. The adven-
ture likewise shows the value of a clear arrange-
ment of ideas. Due care should be exercised so
that good things are not heaped together ^ all in
a muddle.^ It is obvious that '' people will not
drink your mustardy tea, nor will they enjoy
muddled-up sermons, in which you cannot tell
head from tail, because they have neither, but are
like Mr. Bright's Skye terrier, whose head and
tail were both alike.'*

Happy is the child to whom the season of
school discipline comes with pleasures which are
remembered with satisfaction in after life. Mr.
Spurgeon met with good masters, and he drank
in their teaching until he became himself a tutor
with pupils taller than himself ; Colchester, Maid-
•tonc^ and Newmarket all being associated with
those early days. In connection with Colchester

92 Persona/ Reminiscefues.

•
we onoe heard him relate this characteristic
anecdote. On a certain very cold morning the
tutor, without design, so arranged the class that
the lower boys sat in proximity to the school
stove, the comforting glow of which it was hardly
worth while to surrender for the passing honours
of priority. After he had asked sundiy questions
with unsatisfactory results, the schoolmaster sud-
denly, as he thought, discovered in the genial fire
the one cause of Master Spurgeon's unusual dul-
ness. The order was accordingly instantly given
to wheel round, the head, instead of the bottom,
of the class being now placed nearest the stove.
The effect was exactly what the sagacious leader
expected ; for when warmth as well as honour
could be gained by proficiency, a few correct
answers presently reinstated Master Spurgeon in
his former place near the fire at the head of the
column.

A child in whose susceptible heart the Old
Adam so far predominated that he was carried off
his head by the fascination of hunting would not
in the natural course of things appear to every-
body as a subject likely to succeed in the pulpit
A dame who was *' as godly a Christian as ever
breathed " thought that no good was ever likely
to come of young Mr. Spurgeon's meddling with
sacred things, and like a woman of conscience^ if

Advised not to Become a Preacher. 93

not of sense, she advised according to her light :
she steadfastly dissuaded her young friend from
assuming a calling for which it was so manifest
that neither nature nor grace had fitted him. We
cannot any of us afford to laugh at the judgment
of this simple soul : for if it is hard to judge of a
literary work in manuscript, how much more diffi-
cult is it to say what a preacher in embryo will
achieve. If there were those living in the Puritan
age who would have burned the manuscript of
The PUgrinis Progress to do God service, their
descendants, in 1850, would act after the example
of their fathers. The Fathers advised John
Bunyan not to scandalise the church by printing
a silly book ; the children, by shutting his mouth,
would have made a tutor or a clerk of Mr.
Spurgeon. In one case as in the other, a better
judgment prevailed. It is, nevertheless, the
Pastor's opinion that the young should show a
deference to the counsel of their superiors in age
and experience. The first sermon from the text,
** Unto you, therefore, which believe He is precious,"
was preached unexpectedly and without prepara-
tion» and the work has ever since continued.

Probably Mr. Spurgeon has preached a greater
number of sermons than any o^her living pastor
of the same age ; and hence we are prepared for
the admission that all along, he has been careful

94 Personal Reminiscences

of his throat His advice to all public speakers
is to discard once and for ever ^ horehound,
ipecacuanha, or any of the ten thousand emollient
compounds.*' His experience has taught him
that for the voice there is nothing like astringents.
When he removed from New Park Street to Exeter
Hall he discovered that his voice was none too
strong for a place so difficult to speak in ; but he
found relief in Chili vinegar mixed with water^
which he sipped occasionally during the service;
He still finds a panacea in beef-tea ^as strong
with pepper as can be borne.**

A preacher of such varied experience will
necessarily have met with various entertaining
adventures in connection with the business of
choosing a text ; and Mr. Spurgeon ingenuously
confesses that he is ^an odd man.** While re«
tiding at Cambridge, in the days of his village
preaching, he on one occasion vainly endeavoured
to collect his thoughts for a sermon, which had to
be given in the evening. Do what he would ** the
right text ** could not be found. After remaining
some time in a somewhat anxious condition he
happened to walk to the window, when on the
roof of a house opposite were seen a company
of vindictive sparrows worrying a solitary canary,
which had been unfortunate enough to escape
from its cage. After looking for a few moment^

Hearing v. Heavy Sunday Dinners. 95

the words of Jeremiah xii. 9 stole into his mind :
^ Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird,
the birds round about are against me." ^The
text was sent to me," says the preacher, * and if
the ravens did not bring it, certainly the sparrows
did." Why do not the birds, or other agents in
nature, more often than they do bring our teachers
their texts ? Because all have not the eye to
utilize what they see. After he had seen the
sparrows and their victim, Mr. Spurgeon ** walked
off with the greatest possible composure ; • • •
and preached upon the peculiar people and the
persecutions of their enemies"

While Mr. Spurgeon held the pastorate of
Waterbeach the inconvenient, old-fashioned custom
of holding three services on the Sabbath was still
in vogue. This usage, now in a great measure
obsolete, was one which a young pastor would not
find reason to admire; for, leaving out of the
question the extra labour imposed, .^ roast beef
and pudding lie heavy on the hearers* souls^ and
the preacher himself is deadened while digestion
claims the mastery of the hour." On a certain
Sabbath, during the happy days of youth, all went
well at morning service, and at dinner the preacher
ate sparingly, in order that he might wear well
through the afternoon. The sermon had been
thought oat beforehand, without the aid of ink and

96 Personal Remtniscences.

paper ; but in the hour of need, when the people
were fast assembling in the meeting-house, the
train of ideas suddenly vanished, leaving a dark
vacuum, which occasioned some commendable
trepidation in the mind. The fact was related to
the farmer in whose house the dinner had been
served ; but not having to preach himself that
hospitable worthy made light of the mischief. It
is all very well for farmers to say, ** Oh I never
mind, you will be sure to have a good word for
us,^ and so on ; but such commonplaces are only
cold comfort, and they do not point a way out of
the difficulty. Just while the two were conversing
a piece of wood, blazing and smoking, fell from
the fire. Here was the missing link. ^ Here was
a text, an illustration, and a leading thought as
a nest-egg for more.** The hearts of one or two
were reached on that afternoon.

The above are interesting examples of their kind ;
but a more extraordinary instance of a change
of text having taken place, and not through any
mishap, once occurred in the chapel at New Park
Street on a Sunday evening. The preliminary
parts of the service passed off in the usual manner ;
the Bible was opened at the text selected and pre-
viously studied, when another passage hard by
not only attracted attention, but seemed to spring
up "^ like a lion from the thicket^ The prMchet

Preaching in the Dark. 97

tells us that he was ^ in a strait betwixt two.** In
imagination he seemed to listen to a dispute
between the rivals ; and when one pulled impor-
tunately at his skirts the other answered, '' No, no^
you must preach from me.** The new comer had
its way, and the first and second heads were
proceeded with while the third head had not yet
suggested itself. Immediately after the second
division was closed the gas went out, and as the
chapel was crowded with people the danger was
considerable. The people were providentially
saved from panic by hearing Mr. Spurgeon's voice,
and the assurance that he could speak to them as
well in the dark as the light Two persons were
reached and converted on that evening. ^ I cast
myself upon God,'' says the preacher, ''and His
arrangements quenched the light at the proper
time for me."

In his time Mr. Spurgeon has encountered many
interesting specimens of the species called eccentric
people. An uneducated genius in the pulpit has
always something for the observant hearer in the
pew. One of these persons referred to was a
worthy who could found a sermon on such a text
as •* The night hawk, the owl, and the cuckoa**
The text was, of course, ingeniously selected, but
where were the divisions ? Divisions ? The birds
had a head a-piece, and after wringing their necks

9S Personal Reminiscences.

there they were. The hawk was a sly rogue,
the owl was a drunkard who was most lively at
night, the cuckoo was one who harped on the
notes and sucked the eggs of others. And yet
because the matter corresponded with the quaint
instrument it ''did not seem at all remarkable
or odd.** This man was a godly rustic who was
great at spiritualizing ; and though long since
laid in the grave his memory lives in ** Lectures
to my Students.**

Pastors should cultivate the art of conversation,
they should be masters of the knack of turning to
profitable account the thousand and one every-day
Incidents of ordinary life. This was illustrated
by an adventure on Clapham Common some years
aga A common porter was pushing along a
large truck, and in the middle of the commodious
carriage lay a small parcel, perhaps looking more
diminutive than it really was by contrast ^ It
looks odd to see so large a truck for so small
a load,** remarked Mr. Spurgeon. "Yes, sir, it
is a very odd thing," quickly replied the man ;
^ but do you know I've met with an odder thing
than that this blessed day. I've been about
working and sweating all this 'ere blessed day,
and till now I haven't met with a gentleman
that looked as if he'd give me a pint of beer, till
I saw you." What was the result of this deli-

A Working Man's Wit. 99

cately-worded appeal we are not informed ; but
the ready earnestness with which the man sought
to turn the occasion to profit carried home a lesson
such as the interrogator was not slow to learn.
The opinion may be hazarded, however, that
in this instance the natural acuteness of the im-
portunate porter was overrated. From what we
know of the working classes of London we dare
affirm that there are hundreds who would have
manifested a corresponding smartness, the wit
and the repartee being second-hand, and thus
common property. Working men often speak
with great ease and drollery ; but then the witti-
cisms thus admirably rendered may have existed
for generations.

Interested as we may be in all that we know
about Mr. Spurgeon's habits of study, ministers
and public speakers would do well to give some
extra attention to what he sa)rs concerning his
own efficiency in extempore speech, how he
acquired and how he sustains the coveted art
The too common notion is that when a man
does anything remarkably well he does it without
taking trouble ; but the experience of real life
dispels such an illusion. It is through incessant
hard work alone that men succeed, and are able
to maintain their prestige when they have worked
way to the front This is strictly true of

loo Personal Reminiscences.

Mr. Spurgeon ; for he has worked as hard- as
any man in England. In one sense, unfortu-
nately, the position occupied by such a man is
not without its drawbacks. The ceaseless pressure
of work does not allow of the popular mit ister
enjoying life like other people. Holidays are
always scarce ; he may even be precluded from
walking round his garden once in a week. He
has a gift, and to maintain his standing the
practice which is said to ** make perfect " must
be sustained.

As regards the manner of working, Mr.
Spurgeon thinks it unsafe for those who retain
their powers unimpaired to indulge in sticks,
crutches, or spectacles. The preacher above
eveiy man should be self-reliant, and keep his
natural faculties bright with constant service. Mr.
Spurgeon's experience proves that those who
would excel as extempore preachers must trust
to memory and not to notes. Only make your
notes a few lines longer this Sunday, and soon
you will ^require them longer still." He goes
further, and assures us that if there is an increased
trust in the pre-arrangements of memory, it is
naturally followed by ** a direct craving, and even
an increased necessity for pre-composition.'' If
the art of speaking well be encompassed with so
many difficulties, which even a Spurgeon must

A Working Man's Wit. lOJ

overcome, the lessons of his experience speak
to all

To a public spea]cer a liberal supply of fresh
air is of vital importance, and this is especially
the case with the Pastor of the Tabernacle.
Occasionally, in the micklle of a service, he will
ask for more air^ and he counsels all pastors not
to be afraid of opening their chapel windows,
because " the next best thing to the grace of God
for a preacher is oxygen." He will not tolerate
having comfort in breathing sacrificed to architec-
ture ; and soon after settling at New Park Street
the officials found out to their cost the predilec-
tions of the Pastor. There was a window in the
chapel whose iron bars would not allow of its
being opened, and, after repeated suggestions had
been vainly made that a glazier should take out
the panes, they were one morning found to be
broken. The Pastor suggested that a reward of
;^5 should be offered, and that the money should
be given as a testimonial to the offender; and,
although he never informed, he went so far as
to confess that he had walked with the stick
which let the oxygen into a stifling structure.

A considerable weight of responsibility once
devolved on those who kept Mr. Spurgeon's
vestry-door, which after every service was sur-
rounded with a goodly array of persons, one and

lOi Personal Remtnisaness.

all having wants or whims to be satisfied From
time to time many ^ characters " appeared in the
throng. Women with wild fancies, men with
some chronic trouble weighing them down, or
others who had visionary projects they would
talk about to a sympathetic friend, might there
have been encountered Now and then the fire
of Insanity was to be detected in the eye of a
new comer, and the arm of the sentinel deacon
would be raised to hinder the ingress of a doubt-
ful character. Among the more extraordinary
specimens were found those who applied for
admission to the Pastors' College. The coll^[e
is Mr. Spurgeon's best-loved institution ; and it
is generally known that candidates for the
ministry may reckon on receiving patient atten*
tion. There are, of course, bold pretenders who
come forward to turn liberty into licence, and
to take advantage of good nature. One such
was a young man whose face ^looked like the
title-page to a whole volume of conceit and
deceit" The man had enough assurance for a
hundred adventurers, and because his case was
so remarkable he wanted to be admitted at once.
His private opinion was that his attainments were
immense, and that no such application had ever
been received before. He testified that he had
thoroughly explored the field of ancient and

Troubles of an Editor. 103

modem literature, while his preaching was ex-
ceptionally eloquent When his application was
declined, this upstart retired with dignity, sup-
posing that an '' unusual genius " and a '' gigantic
mind " showed the cause of failure.

Some references should be made to Mr.
Spurgeon's editorial troubles, and to the ofTence
which is necessarily given in some quarters
through strict adherence to principle. ^1 editors
receive manuscripts of the most extraordinaiy
description. A journalist once remarked that all
persons suppose themselves to be competent
writers, and the general experience of editors
teaches that the assertion is not veiy wide of the
truth. The absence of talent and education never
damps the ardour of literary aspirants, whose sole
ambition is to secure the honours of appearing in
print Who shall estimate the amazing amount
of doggerel with which editors and publishers are
still pestered ? The plague is a cross to bear,
and shows sig^s of increase rather than of
diminution. Although cacoethes scribendi may be
a prevalent and incurable disease, we believe that
general readers have little conception of the
extent to which it prevails. There appears to
be no class without its writers, or without those
who suppose themselves to be capable of handling
the quill;

I04 Personal Reminiscences.

As an editor, Mr. Spurgeon's adventures are
sure to be singular, proportionately with the
eminence of his position. Because his name is
known to everybody, the eccentric will not be
wanting in endeavours to take him into their
confidence. The poets are always a source of
trouble ; for not only do the doggerel trafEckers
claim attention, a batch of rhymes was once
received from one who claimed to be divinely
inspired by the Holy Spirit 1 Instead of being
inspired, however, all the pieces bore the mark
of imposture ; and did so because the editor's
shelves could ''show many poems as much
superior to these pretended inspirations as angels
are to blue-bottles.'' What fool is to be com-
pared with your ^ inspired " fool ?

Mr. Spurgeon is veiy partial to open-air
preaching, and in his lectures on that subject
gives many interesting incidents from his own
experience. His favourite pitch is the front of
''a rising ground, or an open spot bounded at
some little distance by a wall." Mr. Duncan's
garden at Benmore is a favourite site — ^* a level
^weep of lawn, backed by rising terraces, covered
with fir-trees." He also tells us of ''a grand
cathedral " once provided for his accommodation
in Oxfordshire. ''The remains of it are still
called Spurgeon's Tabernacle, and may be seen

open Air Preaching. 105

near Minster Lovell, in the form of a quadrilateral
of oaks. Originally it was the beau ideal of a
preaching place, for it was a cleared spot in the
thick forest of Wychwood, and was reached by
roads cut through the dense underwood. I shall
never forget those ^ alleys green/ and the verdant
walls which shut them in. When you reached
the inner temple it consisted of a large square,
out of which the underwood and smaller trees
had been cut away, while a sufficient number of
young oaks had been left to rise to a consider-
able height, and then overshadow us with their
branches." He once preached in the time of
haymaking from the appropriate text, ^ He shall
come down like rain upon the mown grass, as
showers that water the earth,'' but during the
sermon a storm of rain passed over the ground.
His general advice to open-air preachers is all
valuable. Certain trees are to be avoided on
account of their *' rustling sound.** The sun must
not be directly in the speaker's face ; nor are
they to attempt to preach ^'against the wind."
Such is a selection of personal reminiscences
collected from his own works, which a future
biographer of Mr. Spurgeon will be able to utilize.
I could easily add other anecdotes which have
not appeared in print ; but the insertion of these
would unduly lengthen this chapter. I will, how-

I06 Personal Reminiseenas.

ever, give one that comes from a trustworthy
friend concerning an English judge, now dead,
but who in his lifetime was very generally
esteemed, and who was deacon of a congregation
in London, a member of the Baptist denomination,
and, therefore, well acquainted with Mr. Spurgeon.
When out of court, or when in the ante-rooms,
both the justice and his learned associates con-
verse familiarly among themselves, so that on one
occasion the Pastor of the Metropolitan Taber-
nacle became the topic of the hour. Of course
differences of opinion were freely expressed ; and
it it possible the brilliant coterie were a little
surprised on hearing from their friend the judge
that they should have an opportunity of deciding
for themselves the merits of the case, as he
intended to invite all of them, and also Mr.
Spurgeon, to a friendly dinner. *Do 3rou mean it i^
cried the lawyers, in expectant tones. '^Yea.'*
^Then agreed!* The bargain being thus con-
duded, the worthy justice fulfilled to the letter
his part of the contract Mr. Spurgeon accepted
the invitation, knowing nothing of the previous
arrangements; and, as Dr. Johnson would have
said, the time passed well with some ^ good talk.**
When the judge and counsel next met in the
robing room, the exceedingly hearty manner ia
which the latter expressed their thanks showed

Among the Lawyers. 107

that they were not ipeaking in the dialect of
mere comphment Mr. Spurgeon was all that
he was said to be, or even more ; and all con-
fessed how well they had been entertained The
confession went even further ; they acknowledged
that they had conspired together to test his
knowledge by arranging beforehand a nuinber
of questions, and the answers received surpassed
expectation. In point of fact, Mr. Spurgeon's
table-talk b in itself good fare; and hence we
are well able to estimate the quality of the
banquet which the lawyers enjoyed, and acknow-
ledged with a bonhomie characteristic of their
order when out of court Indeed, this table-talk
is too good to be lost, but there are difficulties
in the way of its collection ; for, as I remarked
at the outset, ^ what the Pastor has been heard
to threaten he will do, should he ever be ap-
proached by a first cousin of Johnson's bic^apher,
may well intimidate the boldest member of that
inquisitive tribe.''

On December ist, 1880, Mr. Spurgeon gave
tome reminiscences of his earlier days which may
very properly close the present chapter:—*

After thanking his people ^'from the bottom

* The report of what the Pastor said on this interesting
occasion is that which appeared at the time la The
Christian World.

no Personal Reminiscences.

Hb earliest recollections, Mr. Spurgeon went on
to say, gathered around his grandfather, who vrai
for sixty-four years pastor of a congregation at
Stamboume, in Essex, and at the age of eighty-
eight was wont to rub his knee and complain that
rheumatism was shortening his days. Mr. Spurgeon
acknowledged that he owed a great deal to the
teaching of his early youth. When a boy, and
while staying at his grandfather's house, he met
the Rev. Richard Knill, the missionary, who would
take him into an arbour and pray with him.
On one occasion Mr. Knill lifted him on to his
knee, and said that he felt persuaded the child
would grow up to preach the Gospel to more
people than any man living, and that he would
one day preach in Rowland Hill's ChapeL Mr.
Knill gave him sixpence, in return for which
he was to learn the hymn, ^ God moves in a
mysterious way," and at the same time extracted
the promise from little Spurgeon that he would
have this hymn sung when he occupied Rowland
Hill's pulpit On coming to London the preacher
was taken ill, and Mr. Spurgeon was asked to
take the service in Surrey Chapel. He did so,
and redeemed his promise by letting the congre-
gation sing the hymn suggested by Mr. KniU.
Strange things came about in the working of
God's providence. It was through Mr. KoiU

Baptised m a River. iii

daring to preach In a theatrei fhat led Mr.
Spurgeon to conduct services in the Surrey Music
HalL He became a Baptist through reading the
New Testamenti especially in the Greek, and was
strengthened in his resolve by a perusal of the
Church of England Catechism. He was baptised
at the age of fifteen in a river. Two women, who
were immersed at the same time, desired him to
lead them into the water; but he was such a
timid, trembling creature that he needed all the
strength he possessed for himself. But his
timidity was washed away. It floated down the
river into the sea, and must have been devoured
by the fishes, for he had never felt anything of the
kind since. Baptism also loosed his tongue, and
from that day it had never been quiet. When
Mr. Spurgeon became pastor of the church of
Waterbeach they held their baptisms in a
neighbouring river. There was to be a baptism
one day, and it was raining ^cats and dogs.**
The service was to be undertaken by Mr. Elvin, a
man of enormous size, who said he must decline,
for if he got wet through there was not a waist-
coat within forty miles that would fit him. One
day when Mr. Elvin was preaching for Mr.
Spurgeon at Park Street, an old lady put her
head in at the door, and, perceiving Mr. Elvin,
withdrew, remarking that ^no good could

IIS Personal Reminiscences.

possibly come from a man who had so much of
the flesh.'' Mr. Spurgeon went on to remark that
he recollected most distinctly hearing Mr. Jay
preach at Cambridge. The text was, * Ever let
your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of
Christ.^ And he remembered with what dignity
he preached, and yet how simply. Ladies, Mr.
Jay said, in the course of his sermon^ were some-
times charged with dressing too costly. He did
not know much about it himself, but if they told
him what their income was he would tell them
how many yards of ribbon they could afford.
His recollections of Mr Jay were such as he
would not like to lose.

On another occasion he made a journey to
Birmingham to hear John Angell James, for he
was most anxious to be able to say that he had
heard Jay and James. Mr, James's text was, ** Ye
are complete in Him." And what a delicious
sermon it wasl Years afterwards, on being in
Mr. James's company, Mr. Spurgeon told him that
he went all the way to Birmingham to hear him
preach. On his mentioning the text, Mr. James
replied, ^ Ah I that was a Calvinistic sermon.
You would get on with that, but you would not
get on with me always." Dr. Brock, when dining
with Mr. James on one occasion, asked him if he
recollected preaching at a certain place for two

Angell James and William Brock. 1x3

hours. * I do,** replied Mr. James, ^ but the clock
did not indicate it" " No," said Dr. Brock ; • I
was in the gallery, and stopped the clock when-
ever I liked, and thus made you preach for two
hours instead of three-quarters of an hour."
At this Mr. James observed, ^Mr. Brock, you
always were at your fun, and I daresay you
would do the same again.'' ^But I wouldn't,"
retorted Dr. Brock, to the great surprise of Mr.
James, who expected the Doctor would still be
desirous of hearing a sermon from him extending
over two hours at least Dr. Brock's tone sug-
gested pretty plainly that if he happened to be
a listener again, he would rather make the hands
travel unusually quick in the orthodox direction.
When Mr. Spurgeon commenced preaching at
Waterbeach he was sixteen years old. The
people could do but very little for his support ;
hence he also filled the post of an usher at
Cambridge. After a time he gave the latter
occupation up, and trusted to the generosity of
his people, who raised about ^45 a-}^ar for him.
Out of this he paid twelve shillings a-week for
two rooms, and his congregation did for him what
he wished country congregations generally would
do for their pastors. Whenever they went to
Cambridge they carried him vegetables, and any
quantity of loaves of bread, and at no time did any

114 Personal Reminiscences.

member of his flock kill a pig without his receiv-
ing some portion of it. Once young Spurgeon
was invited to preach for Mr. Sutton, who, on
perceiving the youth for the first time on his
arrival, exclaimed, ^ You can't preach. What is
the world coming to ? A parcel of boys preach-
ing who have not got their mothers' milk out
of their mouths I " Mr. Sutton was a quaint old
man, who, after being a shepherd of sheep for
forty years, became shepherd of men for a similar
period, and was wont to remark that his second
flock ^was a deal more sheepish than the first'*

Mr. Spurgeon went on to observe that his (Mr.
Spurgeon's) acquaintance had been most varied
and extensive. He had enjoyed the friendship of
most of the noblest persons that had passed over
the history of his own time. He just happened
to have the least possible connection with Christ-
mas Evans, having found his widow nearly starving,
and it was his great joy to support her till she
died. A friend, now gone, however, on hearing
of it, insisted upon having shares in the pleasur-
able undertaking. Mr. Spurgeon remarked that
if he had not washed the feet of Christmas Evans,
he had done what he could for any relic there was
left of him.

Then he enjoyed, too, the most intimate friend-
ship of Daubign^, author of the '' History of the

Drs. Guthrie and Candlish. 115

Reformation,'* who once gave an address at the
Tabernacle. Mr. Spurgeon also preached for
Daubign6 on the continent, and the same day
occupied Calvin's old pulpit In the evening he
met two hundred of the greatest preachers of
Switzerland, and before departing, one after the
other kissed him on both cheeks. It was his
pleasure to have the personal friendship of Mr.
Sherman, also that of Dr. Hamilton, whom it was
always a real joy to meet in his own home. Then
he well knew glorious old Tom Guthrie. ** What
a man he was to be with ! '' said Mr. Spurgeon.
''And he could tell a story or two. When we
were together we were happy." And Dr. Candlish
it was his delight to be acquainted with. He well
recollected addressing the General Assembly of
the Free Church of Scotland, and Dr. Candlish
was all over the place — now in the gallery, now
to the moderator's right, now to his left Dr.
Candlish was made of quicksilver, and, though his
body was not very large, it seemed to partake
of the quicksilver of his nature. Mr. Spurgeon
regarded Candlish as one of the greatest men
of modem times. And then he knew Amot, and
should not soon forget the good old man. ** All
honour to these men/' added Mr. Spurgeon.
^They did not come to England, but they did
exceedingly well in Scotland, where they were

1 16 Personal Remims€$nc$$.

burning and shining lights.'' He owed much to
the Scotch, for when his Tabernacle was being
built, a considerable portion of the money came
from the North. Whenever he went to Scotland
— ^it was not * Blue-bonnets over the Border,** but
wide-awake over the Border — he came back loaded
with money. He just passed over the skirts of
the Claytons, and everybody who lived in Wal-
worth recollected what gentlemen the Qaytons
were. Without a doubt they were the most
gentlemanly race of preachers that ever lived.
Mr. Spurgeon did not lament that such dignified
brethren had passed away, though they did good
in their day. He had been told that souls were
saved by the white bibs ministers wore. Then
John Howard Hinton had a good word for liim
when very few had anything to say in his favour.
He called in at the Tabernacle one day, and said
to Mr. Olney, Mr. Spurgeon's senior deacon,
** Take care of that young man ; he is an old
Puritan bound in morocco.** ^But I maintain,**
added Mr. Spurgeon, * that I am bound in calf,
for I belong to Essex.** Then that good old Dr.
Campbell, editor of the British Banner^ was a very
dear friend of his. Whenever he went to preach
for Dr. Campbell he had always to take his wife
and boys with him. When writing to invite them
Dr. Campbell would say. ''Our cat has had kittens

Dr. Binney and Mr. Spurgeon. 117

00 purpose for the boys to play with.** And the
day before their arrival the good old man wonld
be out buying toy horses and carts for the juvenile
Spurgeona. This showed that while he was a
stem man he stooped down to do a kindly action,
and took a pleasure in delighting children. Dr.
Binney once went to hear Mr. Spurgeon, and
remarked of the sermon in the presence of some
of the preacher's friends — ** It is an insult to God
and man. I never heard such a thing.** Twenty
years afterwards Dr. Binney visited the Pastors'
College and related the incident, observing, *' Well,
yon know, your minister has so much improved
since those days. I denounced him then most
heartily, and even refused to preach where he
preached, but I very soon found out my mistake."
''And the grand, great man/' added Mr. Spurgeon,
*'was perhaps right in his first observation I **
After mentioning a few other incidents, Mr.
Spurgeon brought his chat to a close, promising
to resume it on a future occasion.

When Dr. Binney took exception to the style
of the young preacher, he was not so singular
in his prejudices as some might now be disposed
to think. In 185 1, when Mr. Spurgeon com-
menced work, the world may not have been
unprepared to greet something new — ^to condone
some departure from the old and beaten ways;

Ii8 Personal Reminisc0nc$s.

but it was hardly ready to welcome a preacher
of such thorough originality, that he ignored
time-honoured conventional pulpit fashions to
follow methods of his own ; even his most un-
compromising detractors did not attempt to deny
that the preacher was original ; but the world
did not find in such an admission a passport to
its favour. This was partly accounted for by the
fact, that in great measure people spoke and
acted as their fathers had done before them. A
Latinised rhetorical style was still regarded as
eloquence; and the '^ great*' sermons of popular
orators at important anniversaries were marvellous
examples of painstaken elaboration. The suc-
cess of Mr. Spurgeon meant a total change of
fashion ; but the world does not change its wa)rs
at the bidding of a provincial youth without some
growls and warm protests. Elderly people did
not know that what they thought to be so
proper was doomed to become obsolete; and
they could not be expected all at once to appre-
hend that the youth whom they accused of so
many improprieties was really a reformer, such
as the pulpit and the world had long wanted.

St/MCDOTES. LETTERS, ANA. JUC

* QcntVwgB of Um fn«st haire aa eye to the amusement ef thdr
feai«n, and make selections of all the remarkable anecdotes, or odd
layUgs, used by a speaker, and when these are separated from their
■unuimdings the result is anything but satisfactory. No man's speeches
or Wct ur e s should be judged of by an ordinary newspaper summary,
whioh in aay case ii a mere sketch, and in many instanofii Is a tflt

L

ANECDOTES, LETTERS, ANA, ETC

Truth versus FicnoN
IKE Rowland Hill and some other celebrated

preachers of wit and wisdom, Mr. Spurgeon
has had many apocryphal stories told about himi
and the manner in which these piquant fictions
are circulated is well illustrated by the following
letter, which the Pastor received in the year
1883:—

** As I see that you are still occasionally put to
the trouble of answering enquiries as to the truth
of various anecdotes, etc, concerning yourself, I
thought the following brief statement might interest
you, or some of your numerous readers, if you think
it well to publish it About seventeen years ago
I was for some time at a well-known health-resort
on the south coast. At the table d'kSte I sat next to
a young married lady, who was, alas I consumptive ;
and of that temperament which is so common in
such cases, iris spirituelle^ and very learned and

122 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc.

accomplished. You may be sure she never lacked
auditors for her lively conversation. At dessert
one day she was ' telling stories/ in the juvenile
and literal sense of the phrase, about yourself. I
let her go on for some time, until I thought the
fun was getting a little too fast; and then I

said, * I hope, Mrs. , you do not believe the

stories yon are detailing, because I assure you I
heard nearly all of them in my childhood, before
Mr. Spurgeon was bom, and that most of them
were then attributed to Rowland Hill — doubtless
with equal lack of authenticity/ She looked me
calmly in the face, with a very comical expression,
and replied, *0h, Mr. ■, we never ask

whether such stories are true ; it is quite sufficient
if we find them amusing.' 'Well/ I said, * se
long as that is understood all rounds by all means
keep on/ The poor, brilliant, thoughtless woman,
and her husband also, have many years since
passed away; but she has many, many suc-
cessors, who are without her wit, and not quite
so good-humouredly candid as to their practice.
If only you can get it ' understood all round/ that
such folk really do not consider whether their
' anecdotes ' are true or not, it might save you
some trouble." In reference to this, Mr. Spurgeon
himself remarked : ^ This is quite true, but it is
a pity that people should lie in jest The lady

A Pulpit in a Garden. 123

was let off very easily. Our friend has touched
the root of the matter. It is not malice, but the
passion for amusement, which creates the trade in
falsehood, which never seems to decline."*

Clapham and WESTWOOa

The North British Daily Mail once remarked
that those who have visited Mr. Spurgeon at his
home in Nightingale Lane, from which he lately
removed to Norwood, will recollect having seen in
the pleasant garden the old pulpit stairs that were
used at the great preacher's first London chapel —
the old meeting-house in New Park Street, where
he was preceded as pastor by a long line of
worthy ministers — Dr. Gill, the learned Hebraist ;
Dr. Rippon, the editor of the old Baptist Hymn-
book ; Dr. Joseph Angus, the Bible Reviser,
and Mr. Smith, of Cheltenham. When the chapel
was sold Mr. Spurgeon removed the pulpit stairs
to his garden, and fixed them to the trunk of a
huge willow tree. " Here," says Mr. Spurgeon,
*• the observer can see those very rails down which
we did not slide to illustrate backsliding, and he
may be sure of that negative fact, because the
story was told of us when the pulpit was fixed in
the wail and the entrance was from behind ; and
more than that, the same story was told of another
preacher before we were bom.'' Mr. Spurgeon

124 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana^ etc.

has not taken the stairs with him to his new home
at Norwood. He has left them attached to the
great willow in Nightingale Lane. * The purchaser
of our former abode," he sajrs, ** will preserve the
staircase quite as carefully as we have done, and
we hope his children will for years ascend by
them to the pleasant seats, where they may in the
summer sit and enjoy themselves beneath the
willow^s shade."

At Home at Westwood,

Before leaving England for America, Dr.
Theodore Cuyler visited Mr. Spurgeon at his new
home near the Crystal Palace, and in a letter to
the New York Evangelist describes his villa as
" a rural Paradise." " The great preacher," writes
Dr. Cuyler, ** with a jovial countenance, came out
of his door with both hands outstretched to give
us welcome. Saturday afternoon is his holiday.
For an hour he conducted us over his delightful
grounds and through his garden and conservatory,
and then to a rustic arbour, where he entertained
us with one of his racy talks which are as cha-
racteristic as his sermons. Mr. Spurgeon's study
is a charming apartment opening out on his lawn ;
the view extends for twelve miles to Epsom Downs.
His parlour, too, is lined with elegant volumes
He showed us with great glee a portfolio of

Dr. Cuyler at Westwoo<L 125

caricatures of himself ; and then, by way of con-
trast, a series of translations of his sermons in
various foreign tongues. His comely wife — for a
long time a suffering invalid — presided at the
table with grace and sweetness. Their twin sons
have already entered the ministry, one in London
and the other now in New Zealand. It was six
o'clock on Saturday when we bade him 'good-
bye,' and he assured us that he had not yet
selected even the text for next day's discourses 1
' I shall go down in the garden presently/ said he,
*and arrange my morning discourse and choose
a text for that in the evening : then to-morrow
afternoon, before preaching, I will make an outline
of the second one.' This has been his habit for
many years ; he never composes a sentence in
advance, and rarely spends over half-an-hour in
laying out the plan of a sermon. Constant study
fills his mental cask, and he has only to turn the
spigot and draw."

The Pastor at Plymouth.

While at the Baptist Union Meetings at
Plymouth in 1875, Mr. Spurgeon told the
following anecdotes : —

Unaired Drawing-rooms. — I was at a minister's
house the other day, and he said, looking at the
drawing-room, * Well, you see this drawing-room

136 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana, etc.

looks a little seedy.'' I said that I did not think it
did. * Well/' he said, ** my wife has a Bible-class
here every Sunday, and she generally gets it once
in the week. In my study I always have a young
men's Bible-class on a Sunday afternoon/' Oh I
good friends, your houses were not meant to be
half shut up as they are. When I call on some
of my people, if they happen to be a little upper-
crust, they put me up in the drawing-room in
the winter even, when there has not been a fire
there for three months, and I get the rheumatism,
and I go out of the room saying to myself, " I
wish to goodness those people would have a service
there every week, for if they did that the room
would be aired, and there would be an incidental
blessing to me, and I do not doubt it would be
so to them."

TAe Rose of Sharon, — I met the other day a
lady who had lost the sense of taste and the
sense of smell ; I had never met with a person
before in that condition. The sweetest fragrance
of a rose was lost upon her nostril, and the choicest
delicacies had not the slightest flavour to her.
It was a painful loss, in some measure ; but, oh I
what a wretch a man must be who has lost the
power of smelling the fragrance of the Rose of
Sharon, and lost his taste so that he does not
perceive any sweetness in the fruit which came

A Story about a Dog. 127

down from heaven, even Jesus Christ I feel in
a pitying mood as I look at you that do not
love Him. Oh, what perverted tastes you have
got I what strange judgments I for you love this
painted Jezebel of a world ; you love this witch
of sinful pleasure ; but my Lord, who is altogether
lovely, who puts the angels in amazement every
time they get a gaze upon Him — ^you do not
love. Oh 1 what has happened to you ? What
strange madness has come over you ?

The Newfoundland Dog. — I read in the * Guide
to Kingsbridge '* a pretty story about the Start
Bay villages, where the Newfoundland dogs are
kept to go out to sea to fetch in a rope. The
story is that one of these dogs saw a child in the
water and swam in and brought the child out.
He could do that, and as he laid the child down
on the sand it was nearly dead, and he licked
its face to try and bring it round ; and' when he
found that his licking would not revive it, he went
up to a village, and he caught hold of people's
coats, till at last he induced some to come down,
and by their care the little flame o^ life in the
child, which was almost extinct, was made tc
burn up agam. As I read the story, I hoped
to be something like that dog. I will go into
the water after souls and try to bring them out ;
and, if I could, I would kiss them into life with

128 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana^ ^*

loving words ; but as that Is out of my power^
I will go and tug the skirts of Jesus» and ask
Him to come and give them life, and raise them
up, and I do not doubt that He will do so. That
was a dog's work. Christians, do something more
than dogs can do, or, at least, attempt to do at
well God grant you may ; and though yoa
cannot quicken them into life, yoa can bring
Jesus to them, and He can give them life and
strength that they may be saved

TA4 Power of Kindness. — One day an old man
shook me by the hand with a firm grasp, and he
said, ^ Sir, one Sunday night you said, * Every
one of you do something to-night for Jesus such
as you never did before.' Now," he said, ^ my son
had been a great trouble to me. He was a very
wicked youth indeed, and he had left me for
some time, and he had brought himself to death's
door by his ill habits. I had, therefore, given him
enough to live upon ; but I thought to do nothing
else. But that night," said he, * I went home
and looked out of my larder the best things I had
got, and I put them in a basket, and I sent them
round to my son to tell him that I had forgiven
him all, and that I had sent him a little something
extra that night, and I meant to do it continually,
and I hoped that he would get well Now," said
he. ** I never could speak to him of reliidoo till

Early Letters. 129

I did that ; and the next morning I went round
and we were able to converse about the things
of God, and he died with a comfortable hope ;
whereas, before, I had been afraid that he would
die far from God/'

The two following letters were also printed for
the first time about sixteen years ago in my
History of the Tabernacle Church. Of course
they have been copied by others, so remarkable
are they when read in connection with what has
since happened,

^Na 60^ Park STassr, Cambridob,

^^ January 2*lth^ 1854.

** My dbar Sir, — ^I cannot help feeling intense grati-
fication at the unanimity of the Church at New Park
Street, in relation to their invitation to me. Had I
been uncomfortable in my present situation, I should
have felt unmixed pleasure at the prospect Providence
seems to open up before me ; but having a devoted and
loving people, I feel I know not how.

'' One thing I know, viz., that I must soon be severed
from them by necessity, for they do not raise sufficient
to maintain me in comfort. Had they done so, I
should have turned a deaf ear to any request to leave
them, at least for the present. But now my Heavenly
Father drives me forth from this little Garden of Eden,
and whilst I see that I must go out, I leave it with
reluctance, and tremble to tread the unknown land
before.

*' When I first ventured to preach at Waterbeach, I
only accepted an invitation for three months, on the

9

130 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana^ etc.

condition that, if in that time I should see good reasoi
for leaving, or they, on their part, should wish for it,
I should be at liberty to cease supplying, or they should
have the same power to request me to do so before the
expiration of the time.

'* Now with regard to a six months^ invitation from
you, I have no objection to the length of time, but
rather approve of the prudence of the Church in wish-
ing to have one so young as myself on an extended
period of probation.

''But I write after well weighing the matter, when
I say positively that I cannot, I dare not, accept an
unqualified invitation for so long a time. My objection
as not to the length of the time of probation, but it ill
becomes a youth to promise to preach to a London
congregation so long until he knows ihem and they
know him, I would engage to supply for three months
of that time, and then, should the congregation fail or
the Church disagree, I would reserve to myself liberty,
without breach of engagement, to retire; and you
would, on your part, have the right to dismiss ma
without seeming to treat me ill. Should I see no
reason for so doing, and the Church still retain their
wish for me, I can remain the other three months,
either with or without the formality of a further invita-
tion ; but even during that time (the second three) I
should not like to regard myself as a fixture, in case
of ill success, but should only be a supply — liable ta
a fortnight's dismissal or resignation.

'' Perhaps this is not business-like. I do not know,
but this is the course I should prefer, if it would be
agreeable to the Church. Enthusiasm and popularity
are often the cracking of thorns and soon expire. I do
not wish to be a hindrance if I cannot be a help.

''With regard to coming at once^ I think I most

Early Letters. 131

not. My own deacons just hint that I ought to finish
the quarter here, though by ought^ they mean simply,
' Pray do so if you can.' This would be too long a
delay. I wish to help them until they can get supplies^
which is only to be done with great difficulty, and as I
have given you four Sabbaths, I hope you will allow me
to give them four in return. I would give them the
first and second Sabbath in February, and two more in
a month or six weeks' time. I owe them much for
their kindness, although they insist that the debt lies
on their side. Some of them hope and almost pray that
you may be tired in three months, so that I may be
again sent back to them.

*' Thus, my dear Sir, I have honestly poured out my
heart to you. You are too kind. You will excuse me
if I err, for I wish to do right to you, to my people,
and to all, as being not mine own, but bought with a
price.

** I respect the honesty and boldness of the small
minority, and only wonder that the number was not
. greater. I pray God that if He does not see fit that I
should remain with you, the majority may be quite as
much the other way at the end of six months, so that
I may never divide you into parties.

" Pecuniary matters I am well satisfied with. And
now one thing is due to every minister, and I pray you
to remind the Church of it, viz., that in private, as well
as public, they must all earnestly wrestle in prayer to
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ that I may be
sustained in the great work.

" I am, with the best wishes for your health, and the

greatest respecl»

•* Yours truly,

'' C. H. Spurgbow.

**JAMM LQW9 Ei^"

132 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana, etc.

''75, DOVS& Road, Borough,

**Apra 2Stk, 1S54.

**To thi Baptist Church of Christ worshipping m Nob

Park Street^ Southwark.

^'Dearly Beloved in Christ Jesus, — I have
received your unanimoas invitation as contained in a
resolution passed by you on the 19th inst., desiring me
to accept the pastorate among you.

" No lengtliened reply is required ; there it but one
answer to so loving and cordial an invitation, / accept
it.

^ I have not been perplexed as to what my reply should
be, for many things constrain me thus to answer.

'* I sought not to come to you, for I was the minister
of an obscure but affectionate people ; I never solicited
advancement. The first note of invitation from your
deacons came quite unlocked for, and I trembled at the
idea of preaching in London ; I could not understand
how it had come about, and even now I am filled with
astonishment at the wondrous Providence. 1 would
wish to give myself into the hands of our covenant God,
whose wisdom directs all things : He shall choose for
me, and so far as I can judge this is His choice.

'* I feel it to be a high honour to be the pastor of a
people who can mention glorious names as my pre*
decessors, and I entreat of you to remember me in
prayer that I may realise the responsibility of my trust
Remember my youth and inexperience, pray that these
may not hinder my usefulness. I trust also that the
remembrance of these will lead you to forgive mistake!
I may make, or unguarded words I may utter.

" Blessed be the name of the Most High I if He has
called me to this office. He will support me in it, other*
wise how should a child> a youth, have the presump*

A Holiday. 133

tion thus to attempt a work which filled the heart and
hands of Jesus ?

** Your kindness to me has been very great, and my
heart is knit unto you. I fear not your steadfastness,
I fear my own. The Gospel, I believe, enables me to
venture great things, and by faith I venture this.

"I ask your co-operation in every good work; in
visiting the sick, in bringing in enquirers, and in mutual
edification.

** Oh that I may be no injury to you, but a lasting
benefit I I have no more to say saving this, that if I
have expressed myself in these few words in a manner
unbecoming my youth and inexperience, you will not
impute it to arrogance, but forgive my mistake.

" And now, commending you to our covenant God,
the Triune Jehovah,

^ I am, yours to serve in the Gospel,

"C. H. Spurgeon.*

At Mentone.

It Is very probable that the majority of friends
who regularly, or occasionally, attend the services
at the Metropolitan Tabernacle are quite unable
to appreciate what a holiday means to a man in
Mr. Spurgeon's position. To superficial observers
the great chapel may seem to be little more than
a popular preaching-station, which, indeed, it was
represented to be some years ago by a well-
known clergyman, now a bishop— a centre of
evangelical teaching, of which neighbouring
churches scarce knew the existence when th«

134 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana^ etc.

doors were closed and the gas was out If this
were all, the strain on the Pastor would neverthe-
less still be very heavy ; for even a genius in his
work cannot preach three sermons \ week of a
high standard of excellence without being sub-
jected to a wear and tear such as dees not enter
into the experience of more humble workers. As
most persons know, however, the offices in the
rear and beneath the Tabernacle are the head-
quarters of a large number of philanthropic
agencies, some of which are of considerable
magnitude, while all, in a greater or lesser degree,
demand the Pastor's oversight In the colportage
department, in the general secretary's room, and
elsewhere on the chapel premises, a goodly
number of persons are regularly employed ; while
at Westwood, two busy assistants, on either side
of the large table in the study, have all that they
can do to clear up each day's work as it comes.
It is thus hardly to be wondered at that com-
menting and general literary work should appear
to go only slowly forward to those who for years
patiently waited for the concluding volume of
The Treasury of David.

In Mr. Spurgeon's case there is supposed to be
some connection between excessive sufTering from
rheumatism and too much work ; but if this is so^
the invalid is probably paying the penalty exacted

Mentone and Holidays. 135

by the indiscretions of former days. That the
ailment is hereditary we are well aware ; for the
Puritan grandfather, who died at Stambourne in
i866» was wont to declare, when verging on
ninety years of age, that rheumatism would
certainly shorten his days. Still, all the suffering
which has afflicted the family since Job Spurgeon
lay as a prisoner in Chelmsford gaol for con-
science' sake in the time of Charles II. can hardly
have amounted to what the Pastor of the Metro-
politan Tabernacle has endured in twenty years ;
and probably the seeds of a good deal of this pain
and weakness were sown when the youthful orator
travelled up and down the country preaching a
dozen sermons a week ; when, besides the usual
inconveniences of the road, such as hasty meals
and having to study in express trains, he incurred
the more alarming risk of damp beds. It would
seem that diese well-meant indiscretions of the
past are now causing some inconvenience.

As a holiday resort during our English winter
and so-called boreal spring, Mentone has many
charms ; but perhaps all the encomiums passed
upon the picturesque Mediterranean nook have
not been verified by the majority who have sought
benefit from its sunshine and sea breezes. The
climate, enjoyable as it must be when lemon-trees
blossom in mid-winter, and flies sport in the

136 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana, etc.

sunshine, has not done so much for Mr. Spurgeon
as was at first fondly anticipated by those who
thought that the rheum might possibly be
expelled from the system by genial climatic
influences. The fact is, however, that even
Mentone is not a perfect sanatorium : *' Indeed/'
says Dr. Benet, '' I question whether in the South
of Europe, in winter, it is not as difficult to keep
free from rheumatic pains as it is in the north.**
He then goes on to tell how the painful malady
exists in all southern climes, including even the
Sahara Desert, adding that " the Bedouin Arabs,
with the thermometer at 8o* or 90® in the daytime,
swathe themselves up in woollen garments and
woollen cloaks, for rheumatism is their enemy as
well as ours." It is plain that, in Mr. Spurgeon's
case, a more moderated strain on the mental
faculties would effect far more than change of
climate.

Social life in a small holiday community like
that of Mentone has its sombre aspects, on
account of the number of invalids who arrive,
never to return to their homes. French con-
sumptives succumb before winter has well begun ;
and though they sometimes linger longer, the
English who are afflicted in a similar manner
surely follow one by one. These losses cast a
shade over the whole of the foreign settlement,

spring in the Sunny South. 137

because^ as Dr. Benet says, ^ the departed have
endeared themselves to the survivors ; they have
lived amongst them, they have shared their joys,
their sorrows, their exile feeling." The advent of
the magnificent southern spring in March may do
something towards exhilarating the more ordinary
visitors, however ; for it is there that the sun
asserts a power which no temporary return of
winter will challenge, when in the vales, and on
the heights alike, wild {flowers blossom with a
beauty and a profusion which astonish those who
look upon the classic shores of the Mediterranean
for the first time.

In this favoured region, and on the verge of
such a spring as the ancient classic poets praised
in their verse, Mr. Spurgeon will secure that rest
and quiet which will do more for him than
medicine or the physician's art His own people
have sometimes requested that he will remain
away for an extended period, and while so doing
thqr also give a guarantee that all will do their
best to keep the varied machinery at home in
good working order. On some occasions the
subscriptions have shown a tendency to fall off
when the Pastor has been away, and this has in
some measure marred his pleasure, if it has
not actually retard^ his recovery. If friends
near and far away really desire to contribute to

138 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana, ite.

Mr. Spurgeon's holiday^ they will ever do so most
eflfectively by keeping the Orphanage, the Coll^;^
the Coiportage, and other agencies well supplied
while he b away. The mill is now in all its
parts so large an aflfair, that more grist than ever
b needed to keep it going ; and when symptoms
of falling off betray themselves, none suffer so
keenly as the chief overseer himself, on whom the
responsibility mainly rests of keeping up the
supplies.

On Going to America.

He always set his face against going to
America; but during the summer of 1876 the
subject was revived by the appearance of a
paragraph in The Boston Globe to the effect that
the much-talked-about visit to the United States
was really coming off. On seeing this notice the
managers of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau wrote
one more application thus : —

** Boston, Mass., Jum 22nd^ 1S7&
" Dear Sir, — Is the above paragraph true ? We have
tried so long and so hard for many years to secure you
that we thought it impossible, and long since gave up
all hope. We are the exclusive agents of all the leading
lecturers in America. We will give you 1,000 dollars
in gold for every lecture you deliver in America, and
pay all your expenses to and from your home, and
place you under the most popular auspices in th«
ooontry Will you come?"

In Scotland. 139

To this invitation Mr. Spurgeon returned the
following reply:

**Clapham, London, Englanxh July 6(M.

'^Gbntlbmbn, — I cannot imagine how such a para-
graph should appear in your papers, except by deliberate
invention of a hard-up editor, for I never had any idea
of leaving home for America for some time to come.
As I said to you before, if I could come, I am not a
lectoreri nor would I receive money for preaching/'

«A Holiday (?);•

After the first Sunday in August 1876 he
visited Scotland, accompanied by his two sons, for
the purpose of enjoying some yachting among
the Western Islands or Hebrides. He was
for the time being the guest of Mr. Duncan of
Benmore. On the Sunday after his arrival he
preached at Scone, in the open air, to five thou-
sand persons, seats being provided for the ladies.
In consequence of these services the neighbouring
sanctuaries were closed. In the morning sermon
he spoke of the hatred which separated sects
between whom there were but few points of
difference, and he warned the Scotch to take care
that this was not the case with them. Even
a microscope could not discover any material
difference between certain of the sects. In the
evening he said he would talk in a more familiar

I40 AneciUtes^ Letters^ Ana, 4tc.

strain. He directly addressed those who had
heard more sermons than they could count They
had listened to waggon-loads, they were smoked
in sermons, and yet were still unconverted. Some
people at the Tabernacle, though very few, had
heard the Gospel for twenty years and were not
caught yet, and it was to be feared they never
would be. They were like india-rubber— no
matter how often you depressed it» the substance
returned to its original form.

On the following Sabbath he preached again
at Kileret to many thousands, who assembled on
the hill-side which overlooks the Firth of Clyde.
On this occasion the northerners appear to have
been surprised at the extraordinary power and
clearness of his magnificent voice.

Concerning this so-called ^holiday," he sent
a brief note to a gentleman at Glasgow, and
addressed from Carlisle on his way home:—

" Dear Friend, — I have returned to England. I had
eleven clear week-days in Scotland, and was asked to
preach more than fifty times. Tka/ when I came for
rest — ^and in a Christian country, too I ' A merciful man,'
etc God speed you. — Yours truly, C. H. Spu&okon.''

In Scotland in 1878.

The visit to the North was this year deferred
through various causes, and when the trip was

In the Highlands. 141

actually undertaken he was so worried to preach
that he did not derive the good from the change
he might otherwise have done. A correspondent
of Thi Baptist thus wrote respecting this visit : —

** Mr. Spurgeon arrived in the Bay of Rothesay, on
Saturday, the 27th July, in Mr. Duncan's fine yacht.
The celebrated preacher sailed from Oban to Camp-
belltown, passing the Mull of Kintyre. Sailing from
Campbelltown, he passed round a considerable par( of
the Island of Arran. The scenery along Arran is most
delightful. He passed through the far-famed Kyles of
Bute. The Kyles narrow and broaden, and narrow and
broaden again. The whole atmosphere is of arcadian
seclusion. Tighnabruaich nestles down below the
hills, the houses rising a little from the shore only to
be half hidden in the surrounding foliage. The very
narrowness of the water and the consequent closeness
of the land on either side are themselves portions of
the fascinations exercised by the place. Here the
scenery is of the most charming description. The
waterway it so narrow that you can see the land on
either side distinctly, and even count the number of
the hills. Leaving the Kyles, Rothesay, the charming
capital of Bute, is reached, noted for its aquarium.
Arrived in Rothesay Bay, Mr. Spurgeon landed for a
drive in the island, when, coming down a declivity,
the horse in the machine ran away, and great danger
was apprehended ; but, fortunately, a gentleman caught
the frightened animal by the head and held it till the
party got safely out. There is a neat Baptist Chapel at
Adbeg, Rothesay, ever pleasant and ever popular with
visitors. The Baptist Chapel here is usually crowded
in tnmmei: Mr. Crabbe. one of Mr. Spurgeon's former

143 Anecdotes^ Letters Ana^ etc.

ttudents, officiates in the said chapel. With sincb
acceptance Mr. Spurgeon worshipped there in the
morning. The chapel was crowded, many failing to
get admittance.

" Mr. Spurgeon preached in front of the Rothesaj
Academy in the evening. He stood upon the top of
the porch of the mansion of Provost Orkney, and there
preached to the assembled thousands, attracted by the
fame of the preacher, from Luke xiii. 10-17. There
were present at least fifteen thousand. Behind us, in
front of the Academy, there was a great crowd of most
attentive listeners. Before us, onwards to the preacher,
there was a dense mass of interested hearers. Towards
our right hand, the side of the hill, on the summit of
which towers the Rothesay Museum, was lined with
hundreds on hundreds of hearers. The vast audience
being thus seated on a natural amphitheatre, the
preacher had full command of his hearers. These had
come from all parts of Bute, from Largs, Millpont, and
Dunoon, not a few having crossed the firth in yachts
and small boats. The weather was delightful. The
congregation began to assemble between three and
four o'clock p.m., and before six every available seat
on the sward was occupied, whilst those who arrived
later had to content themselves with standing in the
road leading up to the Academy.

^' Mr. Spurgeon said : ' Oh that my blessed Master
would look around this throng this night and find out
those who are bowed down in spirit and almost in de-
spair I He or she who thought himself or herself most
likely to be passed by, and so obscure and undeserving
of Christ's regard, was most likely to obtain the blessing.
Some Christians,' said the preacher, * seem to think that
it is a sin to be joyful. They are alwajrs crying out :
Ohy this is a waste and howling wilderness I Then, they

Preaching to the Scotch. 143

ought rot to howl, but ought to rejoice. Timothy
Rogers, who was twenty-six years a prey to melancholy,
came, after all, out into the full clear light of Gospel
grace. The preacher recollected a young woman who,
he believed, was an excellent Christian, who yet thought
and said, " I am an awful hypocrite, and I do not love
the Saviour at all I " " Will you put your name to that ? "
said Mr. Spurgeon. The horror upon her face was
delightful to see, and she exclaimed, " I will be torn in
pieces first." Some ministers,' he said, 'preached in
such a way that people were made gloomy and very sad
at heart. He wished hearers to follow the practice of
the man who got bad milk. *' I don't care, now," said
the man, ** whether there is bad milk or not, because
I keep a cow of my own." Thus, when people found
that the teaching of the pulpit did not give them com-
fort, they should take to the reading of their Bibles more
than they had ever done before. In that way they could
keep a cow of their own, and they would not need to
care whether the milk was good or bad. There are
some Christians,' he said, ' who always remind us of a
person who walks into the class when his face is dirty,
instead of washing it with water.' Referring to the
Liberator at His work, the preacher said, 'The way of
salvation consists of two steps — ^the first is out of our-
selves, and the second is into Christ. None but Jesus —
that is the Gospel. Christ,' he said, ' performed this
miracle on the poor, bowed-down woman out of common
humanity ; another motive was that of special property,
and a third was a peculiar antagonism to the devil.*
Mr. Spurgeon, as is usual with him, preached with great
power, and exhibited the glorious Gospel of the blessed
Lord with remarkable earnestness and clearness."

The reference to the accident in the above

144 Anecdotes, Letters^ Ana, etc

needs supplementing^ the fact being that Mr.
Spurgeon, Mr. Duncan, and those who were in
the carriage had the narrowest possible escape
from a violent death. Their deliverance was
entirely providential It appears, from what I
learned of the affair, that it is a custom in
the north, with certain drivers, to allow their
horses to rush down long steep hills at a head-
long pace. While driving Mr. Duncan and his
guests, as stated above, the coachman on coming
to a declivity allowed the horses to proceed in
the customary merry fashion ; but not approving
of that mode of travelling, Mr. Spurgeon, on their
safe arrival at the foot of the hill, expressed a
desire that a more English-like manner of driving
might be practised. " Oh," said the man, " We
always go like that here." He knew more about
driving than all the preachers in the world, and
was determined to act in accordance with his
knowledge. Soon they came to another hill, and
to the discomfiture of the travellers, they at once
found themselves descending at express speed.
Then the harness broke, the man lost all control
over the horses, which presented the appearance
of frightened runaways. There was a prospect
of being knocked to pieces, and Mr. Spurgeon
confessed that his thoughts were directed to that
subject ; and the people at the roadside looked

A Providential Escape. 145

/

with terror on the spectacle. At the bottom was
a zigzag road, protected by a slight fence, and
beyond this a precipice ; but the party were
delivered when the horses, instead of going straight
forward to destruction, as nineteen horses out of
twenty would have done, turned into another
road, which was an incline* Unable to keep on
at that rate up the hill, they moderated their
speed ; and when danger had passed the friend
may have come to the rescue, but not before.
He said that he never travelled so rapidly in his
life, except in an express train.

On the 5 th of August, the first Monday even-
ing prayer-meeting, after his return from the
north, a crowded congregation assembled at the
Tabernacle, doubtless expecting to hear some-
thing about their Pastor's adventures in the North.
He said he had been lately in many lone places
in Scotland, far removed from the haunts of men.
He had gone there to seek a restoration of health.
He had obtained, in a measure, what he sought,
but, owing to the numbers of persons who visited
him out of a kindly feeling, even in these remote
parts, he had scarcely known what solitude was,
and had consequently not derived that amount
of benefit, in a bodily sense, which he otherwise
would have done. He had been on many fishing
excursions, and from them had learned many

10

146 Anecdotes. Letters. Ana. etc.

lessoni. In that College — the one attached to
the Taberaacle — they were all fishermen, but ho
could wish that many of the fishermen there had
a little more catching bait about them than thejr
seemed to possess. They must get the fish about
them by some means or another before they were
caught, and to that end a harmless pleasantry
was a capital bait Sometimes he had been
blamed for giving vent to witticismSi but in his
own mind he had done well by so doing, because
people came to hear him, and when they did ici
many were caught The fact was, it was a good
catching bait Mr. Spurgeon then proceeded to
say that if persons went to fish either for fish or for
human souls, they must not be fools, for if th^
were they would be like him when, a few da}rs ago
near Rothesay, he threw his lines into the water,
and instead of watching them, turned away and
allowed the fish to take off the bait without
so much as being pricked by the hook. The
Sunday-school was a grand place to use catching
bait, but they must not allow the young fry to
suck off the bait unless they bolted the hook of
the Gospel If the teachers of religion never got
a bite, they should not go to sleep, but should
bait their hooks afresh, and try different waters.
They then might get some to bolt the bait, hook
and allt just in the same way as the ood did.

An Adventure in a Crowd. 147

Those were the sort of fellows he liked — the
nibblers were scarcely any good In conclusion
he gave a description of the scenery of Scotland,
and expressed his thanks for the hospitality he
had received.

One or two amusing things happened In con«
nection with his visit to Scotland this year. A
correspondent thus referred to these northern
services 2—

* Mr. Spurgeon preached at Pollokshaws, near
Glasgow, on the ist of August Long before
the hour fixed for the beginning of the service
the place of worship was besieged by crowds of
people anxious to get admission, and as it was
altogether impracticable to allow others than
ticket-holders to pass into the place of meeting,
thousands who would willingly have paid to get
inside were turned away disappointed. An
amusing incident is reported as having occurred at
the gates, where a policeman or two and several
stalwart office-bearers acted in the capacity of
sentries and collected the passports. Mr. Spurgeon,
having elbowed his way through the crowd as
far as the gate, was asked to show and deliver his
ticket; but not being a ticket-holder the great
preacher was peremptorily told to ^ cut his stick."
Happily some persons who recognised the familiar
face, greatly amused at the comical situation,

148 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana, etc.

nudged the policeman's elbow, and he immediately
gave way. The crowds who had gone in the
hope of getting admission without tickets and
were excluded were addressed in the Greenbank
Public Park by Mr. Spurgeon, jun. Though
Mr. Spurgeon's fame as a preacher went before
him like the light and radiancy of the bearded
comet, his preaching at Rothesay, and we have no
doubt at Pollokshaws, has exceeded expectation."

Another incident in connection with this excur-
sion may be mentioned. Such was the pressure
of the crowd that the beadle was lost sight of
at the time for commencing service, and there
was no one to show Mr. Spurgeon to the pulpit
in accordance with the Scotch polite usage. A
member of Session, however, mounted the pulpit
steps, and called out in a stentorian voice that
the beadle was ^wanted immediately.** This
incident created some merriment among even a
people not remarkable for their witty propensities.

At a field-meeting with his students at Clapham,
both before and after dinner, Mr. Spurgeon him-
self told some further incidents of this journey.
Among other things he was privileged to hear a
sermon in Gaelic, and rather wearying of listening
to what he could not understand, he whispered
something to a Highland gentleman, who replied,
^ If ye pull his coat tail hell soon have done."

A Distinguished Privilege. 149

By some means the sermon came to an end some-
what sooner than the preacher intended ; and it
then transpired that he had got with the prodigal
son into the far country without having had time
to get him back again. Mr. Spurgeoo particu-
larly noticed the repetition of one word which
sounded like agath^ but on mentioning this he
was told that it signified and. s

After his escape from accident he was especially
glad to return to the yacht After all, he thought
the sea the only really safe place. For example,
you ran no risk there of being killed by a pantile.

On one of the days while he was in Scotland
he dined with a leading family — a gentleman, I
believe, who held a distinguished position in con-
nection with the city of Glasgow. At dinner the
Pastor, assuming a very grave face, asked this
friend, ** Mr. , are you aware that your office

entitles you to go without charge through any

toll-gate in England?" Mr. smiled, and

though not previously aware of the privilege
attached to his office, quite appreciated the honour.
Was it really so indeed ? When his curiosity
was a little further stimulated Mr. Spurgeon, to
prevent any misapprehension, added, ''Yes, you
are entitled to walk through, but if you take a
horse you must pay."

In the field, at the students' meeting, also, he told

150 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana. $tc.

this anecdote of Scotland : — ^When I was in Arran,
quite recently, I heard of a minister who preached
in a certain church, and at the close of the service
was strongly urged to promise for a future supply,
the collection after his sermon having been un«
usually large. ^ Dear me I " said the minister, with
becoming pride, ** what might yont ordinary col-
lection amount to ? "^ ^ Last Sunday it was two-
pence halfpenny." * What is it to-day, then ? *
asked the other, expecting to hear a large sum.
" Eightpence halfpenny/' was the reply. •* Woe
is met" said the other, ^ for I gave sixpence of it
m}rselC*

Under the Law of Works.

I was once riding on an omnibus between
London and Edmonton, when a very self-righteous
methodist began to lament the laxity of the
English people in regard to their non-observance
of the Sabbath. At last he referred to the con-
duct of Mr. Spurgeon as especially reprehensible,
for Mr. Spurgeon rode to chapel in a broughanu

" Why don't he keep the Sabbath ? / do," said
the man sternly, almost fiercely, and in that self-
satisfied tone common to his class. I forget what
answer I made ; but this objection to the Pastor's
riding to chapel was not new. Some busy
Pharisee once had the temerity to write to

^Father*' Olney and His Successors. 151

Clapham on this very question, and received in
reply a notification that the horse which ran in
the Sunday carriage was in reality so far a Jew
that he kept his Sabbath on Saturday. To
make sure of this being true, I mentioned the cir-
cumstance to Mr. Spurgeon, when I found it was
all right ; his horse lived under th^ law of works
and not of grace, and hence was not allowed to
work on the seventh day. He usually kept two
horses, and the fodder for these animals was
supplied gratis by Deacon Murrell, ^the gate-
keeper ** at the Tabernacle. ^ How many horses
may I keep, MurrelW — i^^ ''how many will
you keep for me?"— once asked the Pastor.
''Twenty,'' said the good-natured deacon^ and
meant what he said.

Tabernacxe Deacons.

The above will remind some of the readers of
this book that Mr. Spurgeon has from the first
been peculiarly favoured in his deacons. They
have assuredly been a kind-hearted set of men,
forward in advancing Christian work, and many of
them have been specially adapted for tome kind of
special service. Those who remember the familiar
form of "Father" Olney in the past, will know
that he left behind him many fragrant memories ;
and he was favoured by having sons who followed

15a Anecdotes, Letters^ Ana^ etc.

in his footsteps, while his grandsoDi the founder
of the Haddon Hall Mission, is one of the bene-
factors of Bermondsey. In regard to serving
tables, was there ever one who excelled in that
department more than Mr* W. Murrell, who
yearly, during Conference week, superintends the
daily feeding of hundreds of ministers, besides
having to provide the grand supper, at which
from six to eight hundred subscribers to the
College Funds sit down?

Deacon Murrell volunteered to see after the
gates at the Tabernacle, and some other duties
associated with that unenviable office. In all
weathers his not by any means slender form
might be seen, his coat closely buttoned, and his
hands hidden deep down in the recesses of his
side pockets. It was difficult to prevent some of
the ordinary servants from accepting bribes, but
woe to the deluded applicant who, in mistake,
offered a gratuity to this counterpart of Bunyan's
Mr. Greatheart ! Once he was severely provoked
by an obstinate man who refused to come out of
a seat of which he had taken wrongful posses-
sion. At last, being unable to control his temper
any longer, Mr. Murrell cried out to the offender,
"If you go there Til EAT you!" putting such a
terrible emphasis on the threat that the man
looked up, startled if not seriously alarmedt

An Open Air Festival. 153

After the service the gentleman complained to
the Pastor that a very big man had threatened
to eat him in the gallery, " What now, Murrell —
have you been threatening to eat a man ? '' was
subsequently asked of his friend and horse-keeper
by Mr. Spurgeon. ** Well," replied the deacon, " I
did say so ; he would not get out of the seat, and
I did not know what else to say."

A Summer Festival

Formerly it was Mr. Spurgeon's custom to hold
some outdoor services on the farm of Mr. Abraham,
at Minster Lovell, in Oxfordshire. In reference
to one of these festivals The Baptist remarked :-~

^' The interest which his visits have awakened is not
confined to the immediate locality, for his audience is
drawn from the country round within a radius of five*
and-twenty miles. The narrow lanes which converge
to the centre of attraction can only be compared to
the roads which lie between London and Epsom on
a Derby Day. The bicycle and the barouche, the peram-
bulator and the postchaise, the two-wheeled tumbril
and the four-horse coach, indicate the extremes between
which the graduated contrivances for locomotion are
pressed into the service of bearing their living freights.
Hundreds had to avail themselves of the marrow-bone
stage. Some who left home in the early morning to
\yt in time scarcely succeeded in completing the return
journey on the same day. That such enthusiasm was
manifested to hear the Gospel is an evidence that the

154 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana^ etc.

clergy have not a spiritual monopoly in perhaps the
most ritualistic county in the kingdom.

*' The services are held under a clump of trees near
the spot where the Ringwood Oak stood for many
years as a grand relic of the once famous Wychwood
Forest. Very little of the forest now remains, most of
the land being under cultivation. Mr. Abraham, who
farms some 600 acres, makes a capital host, and to
him is due the successful arrangements which make
the annual visit of Mr. Spurgeon so pleasant to all
concerned. His daughters vie with one another in
attending upon the guests, who dine in relajrs at the
well-furnished table of the house, while his sons are veiy
busy in making arrangements for stabling the horses.
Little groups were to be seen under the grateful shade
of the oaks at luncheon, preparatory to the first service,
which was held at half-past two o'clock. The scene is
one of the most picturesque conceivable. From the
house may be seen, in the valley of the Windrush, the
ruins of the castellated mansion of the Lovells, made
famous by the tragic incident in the song of 'The
Mistletoe Bough.' On the slope of the nearest hill
rising above the river is the scattered village founded
by Feargus O'Connor for a working man's settlement,
every house having its garden capable of yielding
sufficient to maintain a moderate family in comfort
In the distance the Chiltems form the sky-line, the
White Horse at Wantage and the Farringdon Clump
being conspicuous objects.

" When Mr. Spurgeon ascended the waggon to com-
mence the afternoon service, there must have been at
least 1,500 people present. The singing was hearty if
not highly artistic, and during the prayer the Wesleyan
brethren betrayed their presence by the responses
which they could not restrain. The preacher was at

An Open Air Festival. 155

his best, and the subject chosen, * I will be as the dew
vnto Israel,' furnished abundant scope for illustration
by metaphors which appealed to the bucolic mind. Tea
was provided in a large marquee, and, as the various
parties were refreshed, they wandered in companies
over the pleasure-grounds which surround the house.
It required a very slight effort of the imagination to
picture the Feast of Tabernacles, when the faithful
assembled to tell of the goodness and mercy of God,
and to sing praises unto the Most High. Such an
opportunity for Christian intercourse is of incalculable
value to those Christians who, in out-of-the-way places,
receive but slight help in their combat with sin and
labour for the Lord, and many must have returned
nerved to fresh resolution, or aroused by a new
enthusiasm to witness for Christ in their own sphere
of life and service I

"As the time for evening service drew on, Mr. Charles-
worth and several of the ministers present extemporised
a meeting, the speakers being allowed five minutes each.
The crowd, swollen now to upwards of 2,000, settled
down to the principal service of the day. The evening
was calm, and the westering sun threw around the
scene a weird charm, as the lengthening shadows ol
the trees contrasted with the strangely-blended hues
which make a July sunset so beautiful. The air seemed
to hold a solemn stillness, and there was nothing to
break the spell. We never witnessed an open-air
service before when everything so conspired to favour
the preacher. At times the deep hush of the rapt
audience was literally awe-inspiring. It is no exaggera-
tion to say that a wave of spiritual emotion broke over
the assembly, few hearts, if any, being insensible to its
influence. From the first sentence in the prayer which
commenced the service to the last words of the bene-

156 Anecdotes^ Letters^ Ana^ etc.

diction with which it closed, the preacher had the
audience in his grip. Never did he enforce his ministry
of reconciliation with more earnest appeals, nor move
an audience by more tender pleadings. As the
assembly broke up we heard more than one minister
excia B^ *We shall hear of this service agaia.**

m}UE SPECIAL OCCASIONS.

**Stiit^ m wtimititrt mkertPtr k§ ia^itm minisitt, mmd ikauid iWi t iJ m i
ikMi kt is 0m duty, A poUoemui or a toklkr may be off duty, bill a
nlnitter new it. Eiren in our recrestioot we ihould still pursue tte
great object of our lives ; for we are called to be diligent in season and
out of season. There is no position In which we may be placed but
the Lord maycome with the question, ' Whatdoest thou here, EUjah?*
and we ought to be able at once to answer, ' I have something to do
for Theeeven here, and I am trying to do It.' The bow, of course, must
be at times unstrung or else it will lose its elasticity ; but there is no need
to cut the string. ... A minister should be like a certain chamber
which I saw at Beaulleu, In the New Forest, in which a cobweb is new
seen. It isa large lumber-room, and Is never swept ; yet no spider ever
defiles it with the emblems of neglect It Is roofed with cheittnvt, and
for some reason, I know not what, spiders win not come near that wood
by the year together. The same thing was mentioiiea to me In te
oorrMors of Winchester school : I was told, ' No spidcn ever oont
hera.' Our minds should be equali* «l«ar of kite iMfaita."—
nur Simdimii, t i8i-»

SOMS SPECIAL OCCASIONS.

A View from the Deacons' Seats.

T^HERE are several ways of passing Into
•*■ the Metropolitan Tabernacle ; and these arc
tolerably familiar to country visitors, as well as to
knowing Londoners. It is also generally acknow-
ledged that London crowds are dangerous, unless
carefully managed by suitable regulations. If a
crowd be regularly attracted to one building, and
each individual be visibly anxious to secure a
good place, not hesitating to use hands and
elbows in working towards the front, the specified
rq^lations must include locked gates, as well as
carefully-guarded side-entrances, which are only
available for ticket-holders. The regular attendant
at the Metropolitan Tabernacle has necessarily to
have his seat reserved, otherwise he would find
himself an unequal competitor with the casual'
hearer, especially if the said casual hearer happened
to be an early riser on Sunday morning. Thus

i6o Some Special Occamns.

there are three ways of going to hear Mr Spurgeon.
We may be one of the favoured few — few, com*
paratively, when the irregular hearers number so
large a proportion of the weekly congregation—
who, as seat-holders, walk directly into the building,
while the impatient crowd of the court is kept
at bay by doors securely bolted and barred.
Secondly, should we not rank among pew-holders,
and still feel painfully conscious of not possessing
strength, either of muscle or of nerve, to hold
our own in the column besieging the entrance,
we take care to provide ourselves with an early
admission ticket, entitling us to the right of
waiting in one of the aisles before the doors are
opened. In this position a visitor may very
profitably exercise the virtue of patience while
occupying a standpoint whence he watches the
thousands who comfortably sit at ease in the
pews, and calculates as to the chances of securing
a seat Should we, however, belong to neither of
the classes described, our ingress into the great
building will, perforce, become a more interesting,
though, possibly, a less pleasant process. We
shall take up our position under the portico
^ early ; " we shall learn that minutes may be
long or short according to the circumstances of
the situation.

Then comes relief in a sudden, exciting manner.

A Sunday Morning Scene. i6i

Bolts shoot backward, and the apparently electri-
fied crowd, as if in response to a preconcerted
signal, move forward en masse ; for, once inside
the chapel, all regulations are summed up in one
— First come first served.

On a certain Sabbath morning I dispensed with
each of the methods above specified of entering
that institution of modem London, the Metro-
politan Tabernacle. By special favour I occupied
a seat on the platform behind the preacher. These
seats are twelve in number, forming a double row.
They are padded, are lined with crimson velvet,
and have arms somewhat after the manner of a
first-class railway carriage. Without question
they are luxurious in all their appointments ; but
then they are for the deacons. A deaconship at
the Tabernacle is no sinecure, and the occupiers
of these seats are known to be worthy of the
accommodation they receive.

Suppose it is half-past ten a.m., or thereabouts,
when I am politely ushered into my 'Meacon's
seat," and commence to study the extraordinary
scene. It is spring-time — the sun is high in the
heavens ; but within the building the g^ is
burning, while the view is partially interrupted by
a misty atmosphere in sympathy with the slight
fog 'without doors. The immense area, which, to
a stranger might appear to be already nearly

II

1 62 Some Special Occasions.

filled^ mast undergo the process of filling till it
Is packed. The movements of the people can
only be compared with the motion of a swarm
of insects, not, however, eager and impatient
like the crowd outside; for the new arrivals
are merely taking up their regularly-appointed
places.

Onward move the great hands of the giant
dock overhead, until they point to 10.40, when
we witness a transformation scene both lively and
extensive. Hitherto the •'regulars" and ** irre-
gulars** had leisurely entered by side-doors, with
the comfortable consciousness of being privileged
persons ; but now all the main front entrances
are opened at once, and in pour the broad living
streams, to occupy, to the last inch, the standing-
room of what appears to be an already overcrowded
building. Look this way or that way, or take a
general view, and it will be hard to distinguish
between aisles and pews. The new comers are
manifestly a little excited in their anxiety to find
seats ; and yet the bustle is not altogether like
any other bustle which is witnessed in public
buildings. The coughing, talking, and feet-
shuffling produce a compound sound peculiar
to the Tabernacle ; and this is instantly hushed
when Mr. Spurgeon appears on the platform.

When the first word ot the service is uttered,

CAaracterisius of th$ Crowd. 163

the multitude of faces are all turned in ooe
direction — ^towards the preacher. Those who
occupy seats in proximity to Mr. Spurgeon's
table may perhaps have observed that the tones
of his voice seem to be nicely adapted to the
requirements of those who are near» as well as
to those who are farther away. To persons
sitting near they are never unpleasantly loud;
to those in the remotest comer they are loud
enough, while they are never indistinct Not that
so vast a concourse can be addressed, even by a
man of the greatest lung-power, without a strong
effort, though in this instance the strain is barely
observed even by those who listen immediately
beneath the clock. As seen from the deacon's
standpoint, it is also interesting to note how
the leviathan congregation allows itself to be
managed. It is subject to certain influences as if
it were one great being instead of six thousand
atoms. It has its recognised coughing times ;
by way of acknowledging a touch of humour, it
smiles like one vast creature which is particularly
sensitive. Then it sings "faster* or ** slower,*
according., to directions, and is in all respects
most admirably managed.

While reading the concluding verse of ^ Rock
of Ages* the Pastor is visibly affected, just a%
a few minutes before, he seemed to catch and

164 Som$ Special Occasions.

diffuse the spirit of ^tfaat wonderful Gospel
chapteTi** Isaiah Iv. Anon, the quiet earnestness
of the sermon seems to extend its influence
throughout the entire space of the building, until
the rapt attention of the crowd, as they listen
to exposition and appeal based on the words,
^ Without money and without priced* is found to
kindle feelings akin to actual awe. To handle
what are called commonplace or hackneyed texts
in a manner strikingly original is the forte of a
great man ; the ability to do this with consum-
mate art is characteristic of the genius of Mr.
Spurgeon,

It is very common for preachers who stand
up before large assemblies to fix their eye on a
particular individual ; a spectator who views the
scene from the deacons' seats at the Metropolitan
Tabernacle is extremely liable to find himself
doing the same odd kind of thing. There are
^ characters " enough in the spacious area, if one
can only single them out and read their faces.
There sits a man in one of the middle aisles
of the area ; he is middle-aged, full-faced, and
altogether in his tout ensemble resembles one who
makes some pretension to self-culture. Though
he uses no pencil and note-book, his brains are,
probably, busily at work taking down what he
sees. Let 11s suppose him to be the representa-

it

Characters*' ai the Tabernacle. 165

tive of some slumberless daily newspaper, which
mil be sure to place the public in possession of
ample information should anything special in
the morning's proceedings attract his attention.
Single out another, and perhaps you will not
be far wide of the mark if you set him down
to be a 'cute Yankee editor on the look-out for
something piquant about the Britishers wherewith
to regale his readers in some obscure comer of
the American continent Do you think it pos-,
sible you may be mistaken ? Look again, and
ask yourself if the worthy fellow's features and
wearing apparel, when put together, do not spell
Jonathan as completely as can ever be done
by eight letters ? A fair sprinkling of country
pastors are sure to be present. Fix your eye
on a Baptist, and he will be found in a genial
humour ; for when so vast an assembly gathers
in a Baptist Chapel he thinks, with some show of
reason, that his principles are in the ascendant.
Select an Independent, and you will judge from
his looks that he has not much to complain
about ; for, after all, this same preacher has
wonderfully stimulated the cause of Noncon-
formity. Besides these, members of the Esta-
blishment, of various grades, must be on a level
with the rest of the world, and to accomplish
this and complete their education th^ most

i66 S&m$ Special Occasions.

needs go to ** hear Spurgeon.'* If the Anglican
be an Evangelical^ he will be abundantly edified ;
he will go away regretting that the Pastor is not
Archbbhop of Canterbury. Should he side with
the Ritualists, he will look pitiful and ill at ease
-»he may even sit with the scowl of contempt
playing about his eyes. Should he be of the
Broad school, he will be sufficiently charitable
to take things as they come. As I view the
spadoos area from my velvet-lined deacon's
pew, I know that the Tabernacle is a common
meeting-ground for all the characters mentioned,
as well as for many others who might be included
in the category.

But it is now time to confess that when we
sit in the deacons' seats we occupy a comfort-
able pew, but, while doing so^ sacrifice much that
would be cheaply purchased by a hard bench
with a deal back. When heard from behind,
Mr. Spui^eon is heard to disadvantage. He is
not a preacher who should be listened to with
a pillar interrupting the view, nor with closed
eyes. His features speak as well as his tongue,
and this part of the sermon was almost entirely
missed while I kept company with the deacons
on the platform. As viewed from the ordinary
pews, these portly church officers appear to be
so luxuriously accommodated, and to be in

A *^ Heavy'' Collection. 167

themselves such models of decorum, that dozens
of times have they been envied both on account
of their state and their station. Let the truth
henceforth be known — that, like men of self-denial,
they are content to forego much for the sake of
their office.

A word may be added relative to the Weekly
Offering collection. The boxes used at the morn-
ing service were brought into one of the vestries
after the crowd had dispersed. How high a
figure the total reached nobody knew, for, as
Sunday is a day of rest, the money would not be
counted until the following morning. Gold, silver
and copper pieces, together with little packets
neatly tied with thread, made up the motley
heap. One miniature parcel enclosed fifteen
shillings from '^A Working Man.** When the
whole mass was placed in a strong black bag, I
ventured to raise it for the sake of testing its
weight

^ It's pretty heavy,** remarked an affable deacon,
who appeared to be the Chancellor of the
Exchequer of the establishment.

I anticipated that the parcel would not be found
to be a bag of feathers. It was certainly the
"heaviest" collection I had ever set eyes upon,
for it was as much as one could conveniently
raise from the table with one arm.

1 68 Some Special Occasions.

At a Whitsuntide Festivau

• Are you going with Mr, Spurgeon, sir ? " politely
asked an active carriage attendant on the de-
parture platform of the Great Eastern Railway
terminus in London a few minutes before the
starting of the midday Cambridge express-train.
The man was evidently a shrewd reader of cha-
racter, or he would not so happily have hit on the
truth at first guess, or have drawn so correct an
inference from my mien, appearance, and tourist-
bag. I gave the honest fellow an answer in
the affirmative, secured a comfortable comer- seat,
and in a few minutes the train was travelling at
a rapid speed through Tottenham marshes, our
destination being Willingham, in Cambridge-
shire.

On our arrival at Cambridge soon after one, it
is clearly manifest that Mr. Spurgeon is expected,
and a railway official acquaints us with the fact
that large numbers of persons have gone forward
by the early trains. After a brief delay we are
again in motion, and this time we are on the
Wisbeach branch, and at each small station even
the porters are on the qui vive. At any rate, one
of these worthies, who had probably heard a false
rumour that the preacher of the day was not
coming, shouted in a kind of suppressed tone of

A Rural fiU. 169

triumph, ^ There he is I " just as our train drew
up alongside the platform. We arrive at Long
Stanton shortly after two, from whence we drive to
Willingham through a rich flat countryi the air
having been made delightfully cool by the storms
of the day before. Throughout the route numbers
of country people, dressed in holiday attire^ scru-
tinise the carriage which carries the Pastor with
keen curiosity ; while in the village proper a
considerable crowd has assembled. Of course
business in general is suspended ; banners enliven
the street ; householders appear to be keeping
open house, though provision for a thousand, more
or less, b served in a farmyard and bam hard by.
In a word, the village is en ftU^ and that un-
answerable authority, ^ the oldest inhabitant ^ of
Willingham, is well aware that the doings now
in progress surpass everything which has come
within the range of his experience,

Willingham is situated in the midst of a purely
agricultural district, and is some two miles away
from the Long Stanton station. The living is
a good one; the parish covers an area of five
thousand acres; and in Puritan times, under
its godly rector, Mr. Bradshaw, the village was
remarkable for its piety. In those days, there
were ** fourscore-and-ten praying families'* resi-
dent in the parish ; and a portion of theses

170 Sopu Special Occasions.

Mr. Bradshaw, the ejected rector, appear to have
been the founders of the Nonconformist interest
which has flourished in Willingham from that time
to this. The place has its pleasant memories,
and the Willingham of to-day presents us with
some of the most favourable aspects of English
village life. It acknowledges no great land-
owner for its sole lord. Small proprietorships
are the rule, and the lords of these, comfortably
housed in their villa or cottage freeholds, look
as though they knew how to enjoy the privileges
of freedom. If an Englishman's house is his
castle, there are many lords and castles at
Willingham. The gardens in the rear of the
houses are not the least extraordinary feature of
the village, and they completely verify all I have
heard in praise of Cambridgeshire horticulture.
The gardens are commonly found to be of great
length, and they are usually planted with favourite
fruit-bearing trees. I was given to understand
that in ground attached to the houses of this
small place there are not less than fifty acres of
gooseberry-bushes in a luxuriant state of cul-
tivation.

The advertisements announced that Mr. Spurgeon
would preach the first of his two sermons at three
o'clock ; and, as that hour drew near, the people
who had hitherto thronged the village street

Preaching from a Waggon. 171

adjourned to an adjacent meadow, there to com»
pose a compact multitude. A spacious marquee
had been erected ; but, ample as its area may
have appeared to the contractors, it was ludicrously
small when measured against the space required ;
and hence to speak from a waggon on the green-
award seemed to be the only possible arrangement
that could be reasonably made. Having, with
considerable difficulty, threaded his way through
the throng, the preacher ascended the "pulpit," and
found himself in the centre of a sea of upturned
faces ; and, confessing an inability to speak from
the back of his head, he notifies in which direction
he will chiefly look. The text is taken from
I Cor. XV. 10: "By the grace of God I am what
I am ; ^ and the sermon, with its fervent deli-
neations and soul-stirring appeals, was admirably
adapted to produce a lasting effect on the mixed
multitude of hearers. The purport of the sermon
was— everybody had some ailment ; but Christ
was ** the mighty doctor of grace."

At the conclusion of this service, the people
returned to the village to drink tea, which was not
difficult to obtain, as everybody still appeared to
be keeping open house, and provision for a hungry
multitude was made at the farmstead before
mentioned. Mr. Spurgeon and a select number
of friends drank tea together in one of the long;

172 Sotne Special Occasions,

secluded gardens for which Willingham is or
should be renowned.

At the evening service the sermon was preceded
by a characteristic address from Mr. William
Olney, one of the most active of the deacons at
the Tabernacle. When Mr. Spurgeon again stood
forward, he was greeted as before by the upturned
faces of persons who still drank in his words with
unabated eagerness. The text was taken from the
dying words of King David to his son Solomon,
** If thou seek Him, He shall be found of thee."
All that David said was good ; but the last words
of such a father to such a son as Solomon were
especially solemn.

I. They represented our greatest want — they
needed their God.

II. David told Solomon how his great need
might be supplied — ^ If thou seek Him/*

Lastly, the text had a finger — Thau. The
preacher went on to show that while the young
had a text all to themselves, the old needed not
to be discouraged. Some calculations had been
made to show that people are seldom converted
after forty-five, and as they grow older the
chances that they will ever become partakers of
saving grace proportionately diminished. In the
opinion of Mr. Spurgeon such notions were as
ridiculous as they were unscriptural, and statistics

A Striking Evening Scene. 173

were frequently little else than a means of telling
lies by figures.

The evening scene was one to be remembered.
Parts of the surrounding district had only lately
been visited by storms ; but during the delivery
of the sermon the peace of a summer evening
settled over Willingham. A soft breeze carried
the sweet scents of the fresh blossoming country
on its bosom ; birds were merrily singing in the
trees and hedges ; while the setting sun on one
side of the horizon, and the rising moon on the
other side, seemed to be looking each other in
the face while they supplied the preacher with
materials for illustration. The spectacle was
very striking as a scene of rural peace and enjoy-
ment The powerful voice of Mr. Spurgeon rung
out loud and clear, reaching to the utmost limit of
the crowd. Individuals representative of various
classes of sinners were singled out, reasoned with,
and appealed to, the text in each instance being
driven home to the heart and conscience — ^"If
thou seek Him, He shall be found of thee."

Thus further proof was given, if that were
needed, of the hold which Mr. Spurgeon still
retains on every class. I inquired of a Cam-
bridgeshire peasant what he thought of the
sermon. '^ Oh I ** replied the poor fellow, ^ it was
lovely; I wish he had kept on all night**

174 Soffu Special Occasions.

With the Students.

Probably a good maqy people who once thought
otherwise are coining round to the conclusion that
'^Spui^eon's students'' are an institution called
into existence by the requirements of the modem
Church. While there will be differences of
opinion in regard to the young fellows' general
fitness for an arduous calling, the majority of
judges will concede that they are men of enter-
prise, who can battle with difficulties and bear
hardship. They have many traits which mark
their individuality, and they strive to do credit
to the common cause, and to be worthy of their
schoolmasters. If you will, you may count these
young men too daring, too enei^etic, or too
assuming ; but while the field is the world, and
the world remains what it is, there will be plenty
of others who will think that there b room both
for the workers and their singularities. It is well
known that there are persons, sensitive and not
too charitable, who affect to look down on the
Tabernacle collegians as innovators or interlopers,
or perhaps even as trespassers, who monopolise
spheres which common fairness would reserve for
better people. To be criticised b a privil^e as
well as a penalty ; for without critics public men
would not know their own weaknesses. As

TTie Pastors' ColUg: 175

regards the ^ students " in question, we should in
justice remember that a very large percentage
of those who settle In London make their own
spheres. Another large proportion, who remove
to the Colonies and to the United States, cease
to be in anybod/s way — so far as England is
concerned.

Mr. Spurgeon never disguises the fact that
the College is his best-beloved Institution, He
well knows that his system may have its weak
points, but that is only saying it is human. In
spite of real or imaginary shortcomings, the
College is nurtured as a powerful evangelistic
agency. It has even been hinted that he expects,
or at least hopes to see, a successor to himself
come forth from the classes. Such a genius has
not yet arisen ; to expect his advent may perhaps
savour of enthusiasm. The president is a man of
faith ; there b time enough yet.

Founded and presided over by so shrewd a
judge of human nature and of human motives,
this College differs from the ordinary run of theo-
logical seminaries. The aim of the tutors is very
clearly d;:fined. They do not despise learning,
but still wish to turn out preachers rather than
scholars, and to accomplish their purpose they
cannot complain of any want of material. Every
candidate is well aware that he will have to pass

176 Soms Special Occasions.

a •earching examination, and that the aim of the
examiners will be to discover his aptitude for
work— the quality of the human metal — instead
of being guided In their decision by what he
already knows. The judges put down piety at
a higher value than Greek and Latin ; and they
believe that love for mankind is better than a
mathematical braim Come what will, the appli-
cant. If he be a man of common sense, is
thoroughly assured that he will be judged on
his own merits. He needs no friend at court to
advance his interests, the recommendation of
his pastor being merely a certificate of character.
Nothing can be more unprejudiced than this
method of election. Even if it were true, which
h is not, that it chiefly attracts the plebeian
element, even that would be preferable to being
spoken of as a pretentious Nonconformist college
reserved almost exclusively for those who can
help themselves.

Having survived his probation, the * student "
feels that he is a unit in a society which exists
to promote the conversion of mankind ; and while
his interests are not separate from those of his
denomination, he will throughout life retain a
feeling of clannishness. It is well that it is so,
for his difficulties and discouragements are of
no common order. Go whither he will, he must

Men to he fudged by their Works, if)

resist the opposition of prejudice — a prejudice
founded on the poor fellow's supposed lack of
good breeding and early advantages. It is sur-
prising how long and correct peoples' memories
are when they have to do with things they might
gracefully forget. * Spurgeon's student " is often
found to be a suffering victim of this persecuting
retentiveness. People remember — and if they
do not really know they suspect — that he was
originally intended for some trade/ that he was
actually apprenticed, and that he would even now
be working at a bench had he not, through some
mischance, found his way into college. They do
not stop to ask themselves whether similar things
might not apply to numbers of other ministers who
have passed through other seminaries. Provided
only that a college can boast of a certain kind of
prestige, the inmates are looked upon as scholars
and gentlemen, who have been directed into their
proper avocation. Let us not disparage one class
at the expense of another, but give both their due,
because neither class can afford to throw stones
at the other. In common fairness we are bound
to judge of men by their works. The cultured
man will find his proper sphere, and between him
and the more humble, though perhaps not less
useful, evangelist, there need be no rivaliy. Minis-
terial successes should be measured by conver

12

1/8 Some Special Occasions.

sions, not by the literary quality of the sermons
preached ; and so that men are brought in from
the bondage of sin into the liberty of Christ, it is
hardly worth while to dispute about the polish of
the instruments. Who, on looking at an elegant
cabinet, asks if the artificer had five fingers on
sach handy if he was legally apprenticed, and if
the tools used were those of approved makers ?
The carving is there, and we give the workman
his due. If we look at their work from all sides
in this spirit, we shall find that ^ Spurgeon's
students" have more than earned their salt
They have established a large number of new
churches ; they have reclaimed thousands of
people who might never have been hauled in
from ruin by the kid-gloved hands of a more
*• regular '* agency. They are trained to endure
hardship and toiL In a sense, they are un-
doubtedly innovators ; at times, perhaps, they are
somewhat too bold and outspoken ; but still some
of them have become sufficiently distinguished to
rank among the chief apostles of Bristol, Rawdon,
or even Regent's Park — those classic retreats for
well-to-do aspirants and gentlemen's sons.

The ordinary ** Spurgeon's student " has many
characteristics which bespeak his training and
ruling taste. Perhaps he would be a gainer were
he to rub off some of his idiosyncrasies ; but such

If^Mt the College Aas Done. 179

as cling naturally to him are best left alone.
With rare exceptions, he never affects the fine
gentleman ; he does not proclaim his profession
through the tailor ; with his black tie and felt hat
he apparently cultivates a nonchalance in dress not
readily understood in a fashionable age, when
ecclesiastical exquisites need not despair of
shining as centre attractions in West End draw-
ing-rooms. Thus it happens that the ** student's **
friends say he has no sham about him ; that he
wishes to pass simply for what he is — an evan-
gelist ; or if settled, a plain pastor. His severer
critics say he is an enthusiast, an imitator of the
manners and tones of one man, and that his
sermons are declamation. In summing up the
evidence of these opposite witnesses, remember
that man naturally imitates ; that it is well-nigh
impossible for classes to come into daily contact
with one master mind and not contract a few of
his mannerisms. To the young men concerned
I would say. Strive against a natural propensity
which will provoke ridicule and loss of power.
To be peculiar is not necessarily to be weak,
though if he try to be peculiar it is a sure sign
that the man is naturally a weak man.

What has the College done ? According to
the last returns, 722 have been educated, and
there are 547 of these who still labour as pastors,

i8o Some Special Occasions.

missionaries! or evangelists. There are twenty*
one without pastorates; forty-seven pastors and
seven students have died ; nine are permanently
invalided ; while seventy-five names have been
removed from the roll, not in all cases ^from
causes which imply any dishonour!** as many
are working in other denominations. There are
66fii$ members attached to the Churches of
the Pastors' College Association.

Christmas Day at the Orphanage.

The Christmas morning to which particular
allusion is now made was hailed by the inmates
of the Stockwell Orphanage with all the enthu-
siasm that had characterised former years ; how,
indeed, could it be otherwise, when the day
dawned with promises of feasting and merry-
making quite after the heart of Young England,
who has found a home in that well-known Insti-
tution ? While the weather was cold, foggy, and
muddy, the aspect of the dining-room presented
a cheerful contrast to the reigning gloom without
The ample area was decorated with flags, ever-
greens, and mottoes, until it partially resembled
a baronial hall of olden times, and numbers of
visitors were found passing a holiday hour
in inspecting the preparations. Callers and

The Orphanage Kitchen. i8i

stragglers, who dine late, and who are desirous
of seeing all they can before dinner, may find
a sight worth looking at on Christmas Day at
Stockwell — something to educate the heart as
well as feed the mind ; and should they leave a
donation behind them, the remembrance of what
they have done will make music in their souls
when they themselves sit down to the feast So,
at any rate^ would good George Herbert have
said, and George Herbert was right

Soon after noon a carriage is heard rattling
into the grounds, and this, together with the
cheers of the boys, is an intimation that Mr. and
Mrs. Spurgeon have arrived. Before dinner is
laid on the tables a Board-meeting may have to
be held ; and while more serious business is in
prc^ess, fresh loungers are coming in to show
their interest in the arrangements. The kitchen
appears to pbssess extraordinary attractions, and
well may this be so ; for vast as is the quantity of
food to be prepared, the admirable apparatus at
the command of the cooks sits easily beneath
its burden, and even seems to make light
of it

After some further unavoidable delay, the boys
and girls are marshalled, shortly before two, to
be marched into their places, when dinner is
served. Substantial joints of roast beef fdlow

1 82 Same Special Occasions.

one another from the kitchen, each fresh arrival
being handed over to an amateur carver at a
side-table. In the meantime, Mr. Spurgeon re-
minds the boys of the gratitude they owe to God
for sending them friends who, in their kindness
of heart, have provided so rich an abundance of
good fare. The youngsters quite appreciate theur
President's remarks, and show that they under-
stand their obligations by the hearty cheers which
shake the building, a fair proportion of the noise
being made in honour of the gentlemen who
presented the boxes of plums and the new
shillings. Other cheers follow, for standing in
the room are certain tried friends of the Institu-
tion who merit the boys' affection, and this is
especially true of the President, who is hailed
with deafening acclamations as the orphans* best
earthly friend. At length the noise is succeeded
by a calm ; grace is sung. * And now, my
boys,** says Mr. Spurgeon, ^I hope you will
heartily enjoy yourselves.'* The beef, which is
the best that the London market can supply, is
speedily disposed of; and next comes a proces-
sion of pium-puddings borne by a regiment of
••old boys," who are now out in the world making
headway on their own account. After the
puddings have shared the fate of the beef, there
succeeds a still greater pleasure — each orphan is

Concerning th$ Orphanage. 183

allowed to retire, and to carry with him to the
playground his box of plums, the sweet orange,
and the new shilling.

When well enough to do so^ and when in
England, it has been Mr. Spurgeon's custom to
dine with the working staff of the Orphanage on
Christmas Day. The last time that he did so
was in 1885, when he was accompanied by Mrs.
Spurgeon ; and he had then not been since
1 88 1. In the last report of the Institution
Mr. Spurgeon thus refers to the work in pro-

^ Let those who have aided us in any manner
only look in upon the Institution at Stockwell,
and the sight will well repay them. What a
beautiful square of buildings I What a noble
open space in the centre I Then see the boys
and girls. Nobody ever said that they looked
miserable: it would be too transparent a false-
hood. Did you ever see more happy faces in all
the world ? These bear no brand of pauperdom
and wear no trace of being crushed down by
hard workhouse discipline. Many a father has felt
that if he were suddenly taken away he could
desire no better shelter for his children. One
minister expressed that sentiment at one of our
meetings, and within two years he had fallen asleep,
and two of his boys were with us. These dear

184 Some Special Occasions.

children, often the descendants of sickly fathers,
are, as a rule, in splendid condition ; in fact, the
average of health is far above that which is
common in the best families. While they are
with us they receive a good solid education, and
are surrounded with gracious influences ; and
when they go from us, as a rule, they succeed in
life, and become useful and honourable members
of society. We have received the highest testi-
mony from practical men as to the result pro-
duced by the Stockwell Orphanage training.
Thus, instead of pining in poverty, and either
dying of want or growing up in ignorance, the
children are carefully housed and prayerfully
trained, and rise into manhood to be an honour
to their homes and a benefit to society. Mean-
while, their widowed mothers have been succoured,
delivered from hopeless want, and encouraged
to bring up the rest of their charge. Friends, we
are partners in a very blessed enterprise. Our
Lord approves of it. His people delight in it,
and even men of the world have nothing to say
against it This work for orphans is one of the
best aids to the Gospel : it stops the mouth of
adversaries. It is fit that the preacher of free
grace should be able to point to his five hundred
fatherless ones, and say, * See the fruit of the
doctrines of grace.' Those who are saved by

Home Life of the Orphans. 185

Taith alone are yet zealous to maintain good
works. To them also, * pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this, to visit the
fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and
to keep himself unspotted from the world/

^ Our experience confirms us in the practice of
The Separate Home System. We have not
huge wards, nor vast barracks, but houses and
families after the fashion of ordinary society.
The loss of home and parental influence is a
calamity to a child, and the wisest course is to '
minimise the loss as far as possible by keeping
up the family form. Covering an area of nearly
four acres, in one of the healthiest suburbs of
London, the Orphanage is admirably adapted for
its purpose. Each home is complete in itself,
and each family has its own * mother.' The boys
dine in one common hall according to families ;
the girls' meals are all prepared in their respective
houses ; and it is a rule that both boys and girls
assist in all the domestic duties of the establish-
ment Family worship is conducted in each
department morning and evening, and the children
learn the text for the day from Mr. Spurgeon's
Almanack. The terrace on the left-hand side of
the quadrangle, with the schools over the centre
block, is designed for two hundred and fifty boy%
and the terrace on the right for an equal number

i86 Sanu Special Occasions.

of girls. The proof of the pudding is in the
eating, and in countiess ways the excellence of the
home system shows itsdf to those who observe
its working.

** Under our system careful supervision of each
child b possible, and the best sanitary, moral, and
religious conditions are secured. Though we
cannot change human nature, nor make even
good children perfect, we can do better for them
in family groups than if we had them in great
masses, and packed them away in grosses, like
steel pens. Individual character comes out better
in small groups than in large regiments.

*The Institution is Unsectarian : the question
of the denominational connection of the parents
has no influence with the Committee in considering
an application. No child is prejudiced as a
candidate by the creed of his parents. Why
should he be ? In a matter of pure philanthropy,
sectarian preferences should have no weight ;
although the characters of the parents and their
usefulness in the Church of God constitute in
some cases a plea for a more speedy reception
of their little ones ; yet if Christian principles
were lacking in the father the child should not
be punished on that account; on the contrary,
there may be all the greater need that the little
one should come under religious training.

Home Life of the Orphans. 187

^The supreme desire of the Committee of
Management is that the children shall be instructed
in the truths of our common Christianity, renewed
in spirit by the Holy Ghost, and brought up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We
are more concerned that the children should
become disciples c^ Christ than devotees of a
sect; and for this we will both pray and
laboun • • •

^ The Institution b OPEN TO ALL CLASSES OF
THE Community. No one section of society has
the preference. In considering the claims of an
orphan, the station in life occupied by the parents
has small influence in the counsels of the Com-
mittee.

To secure the admission of a destitute father-
less child, No Patronage is Required, and No
Purchase of Votes. The most helpless and
deserving are selected by a Committee, who give
the first place to the greatest need.

^ The children are NOT DRESSED IN A
Uniform to mark them as the recipients of
charity. We cannot endure this common piece
of folly.

* In the arrangements of the Schools our object
is to impart a plain but thorough ENGLISH education^
in order to fit the boys for cbmmercial pursuits.
In addition to the ordinary subjects^ they are

i88 Some Special Occasions.

tanght dementaiy sciencei drawing; shorthand,
and vocal music As the boys attain the age
for leaving, little or no difficulty is experienced
in finding employers who are willing to receive
them. Many of the old boys are now occup)ring
good positions in large houses of business, three
of them are pastors of churches, and two have
resigned first-rate appointments to labour in
connection with the Salvation Army. It is a
joy to us to know that many others are engaged
in works of usefulness, while a far larger number
are members of the Christian Church.

^For the girls a plain solid education is
attempted in the Schools, and thorough domestic
training in the Homes. The Trustees will be
glad to give special training where there are
special capacities, and as openings occur for
female talent they will be glad to have girls able
to enter them. The special vocation of the girls
must be left to their friends to determine on
leaving : our usual plan is to ensure that, as far
as possible, they shall be thoroughly fitted for
domestic service in good families; but we are
anxious to be guided by the providence of God,
and the opportunities which offer themselves.
No doubt the better the education, if it be of
a really practical kind, the better is the child's
chance in life*

Home Life of the Orphans. 189

Summary of Admissions.

London •
Countxy •
Wales .
Scotland

7«7

17
I

Ireland •••••»««
Isle of Wight . . . • . 4

Total i^OQO.

Parsntaob of thb Childreh

Mechanics ....

Shopkeepers and Salesmen .

Manufacturers and Tradesmen

Labourers, Porters, and Carmen

Warehousemen and Clerks •

Mariners and Watermen •

Ministers and Missionaries •

Commercial Travellers • •

Farmers and Florists • *

Railway Employes . ,

Cab Proprietors and Coachmen

Schoolmasters and Teachers .

Policemen and Custom House Officers

Commission Agents

Accountants •

Postmen and Sorters

Surgeons and Dentists

Journalists

Solicitors

Soldiers

Fireman

Architect

Gentlenuui

a6i

171
161

117

3«

33
at

at

18

17

13
II

II

a

6

5

4

a
I
I
I

Total 1,099.

I90

Sonu Special Occasions,

Riuoious Profxssiom of Parents.

Church of England
Baptist •

Congregational «
Wesleyan • t
Presbyterian . <
Roman Catholic «

. 419
• 164
» lai

» lOI

%%

3

Brethren «

4

Moravian

I

Bible Christian

a

Society of Friends

Not specified • • <

» I
X51

Total

1,099.

The head master is the Rev. V. J. Charles-
worthy and the working staff have all along, by
their efficiency and sympathy, earned the often-
expressed gratitude of the President

The Colporteurs.

The Colportage Association is also an evan-
gelistic i^ency the influence of which extends
into many of the most out-of-the-way comers of
the country. When health permitted it has been
usual for Mr. Spurgeon to address the men, many
of whom visit London in May of each year.
The agents are hard-working fellows, and besides
selling books, they visit the people in their houses,
and even preach the Gospel in places where
otherwise the Gospel would hardly be heard.

*" SeU the Books:' 191

There are now seventy-six agents employed, and
seven book agents; and in the last year these
sold pure literature to the amount of 1^9,535,
representing a distribution of 457,53/ Bibles
and books, besides 3 20,504 periodicals. Mr. Spur-
geon, in common with all who are acquainted
with it, are of opinion that this work should be
extended, and that Christian people should mani-
fest more interest in the colporteurs' operations.
Certainly, its importance is second to no other
Christian work, and in proportion as the good
done b understood and appreciated, people will
extend to such a genuine Home Mission their
cordial support

On the last occasion that he addressed the
men in May, 1885, Mr. Spurgeon remarked that
while there were old faces present that he was
glad to see again, there were also some new
hands, to all of whom he wished prosperity.
It was hoped that the first would not become
weary, and that the younger men would find
themselves in happy spheres. Though many
had found it otherwise, the past year had been
a good time for colporteurs: the sales had not
declined, and the higher success achieved had
encours^ed them all. Though he was not going
to preach on the text " Sell the books^** that
was the first thing a colporteur had to do. They

.19^ Same Special Occasions.

might be good men In other respects, but they
did not excel as colporteurs if they did not push
the sales. It was just the same with students
in the college ; they had first of all to be good
preachers. Thus the main object of their calling
must not be missed. Yankee book-agents had
the reputation of being terrible fellows: they
would never leave a house without an order,
even though it might be an order to get off the
premises ; and one of the fraternity was said to
have so much ^ cheek/' that when struck by
lightning in tke face — his strongest point — ^the
fluid glanced off to kill an animal some yards
away. In a sense, this ^ cheek '* was a good
thing, although they would not do much without
perseverance. They wanted men to sell books
to people who thought that they did not want
to buy them. They had no reason to be
ashamed of their wares, which were good to sell
and good to buy. It was then shown that a
colporteur would be judged of in a district by
his usefulness. As they loved their Master,
therefore, let them abound in all good works
to His glory, forasmuch as their labour was not
in vain in the Lord.

The Rev. W. Corden Jones, at the Depository,
Temple Street, Newington, S.E., supplies all
particulars on application.

TWO THOUSAND PRINTED SERMONS.

I • ♦

''Our alBliliy it a tatciaioiif tint m mw tfaedlofj it n ee d ed to itk
fhe DMiMt and mve aoult ; we dsfy eU the negathe theologians in
E'SlglnndtoghresiidiproQfof theirministiynswe can. If we most bt
fDob in gloiyii^ we do, we must boast that the old doctrines are vlcto-
rions, and that the Locd, the Spirit, has most signally honoured them.
We do not dte the overwhdming and ever increasing multitudes who
Istea to w, as a proof In dds matter, but, we do and will {(lorj, in the
power of the Gospel, In that it has brought so many to the cross of Christ,
and laised so many from tlw dnnghilL In every place wliere the old
Gospel has lieen proclaimed It hashed hs trophies from the wont of
ma, and we are no eioeptioos to the mU* The slain of the Lord hav«
been many. His arrows have found oik >e hearts of His enemies;
many have lieen overthrown by His Spirit, and have been ultimately
brought to And liiie and healing in the blood of Jesus. The best evi-
dences of the truth of our holy religion, are to be found in the marveDoos
effiscts It produces.. Drunkards, harlots, s we ar e rs , thieves, Uais, and
such like, when reclaimed and regenerated, are the jewds in the crown
of the truth ; of sodi we must say in confidence, * What haih God
mon^V-^Fr^dc^^ VtLli.^ Tki Ntm Park Sirui Ful^

VIL

IWO TBOUSAND PRINTED SERMONS.

CONCERNING their weekly pabUcatioo, and
concerning individual sermonsi many re-
markable things are told. Some on special topics
have commanded a very extensive sale^ the one
on Baptismal Regeneration leading the way
When this was first published, It was fearei
that the circulation would be disastrously affected,
but the number of subscribers actually increased.
The history of these sermons would constitute
a unique chapter in the annab of the church.
Some years ago^ an ardent admirer of Bfr.
Spurgeon gave away, at his own charge, a
quarter of a million copies. He had volumes
elegantly bound for presentation to the crowned
heads of Europe. He also had books, contain-
ing a dozen in each, sent to every member of
both Houses of Parliament, and to all the students
of Oxford and Cambridge. More singular still
was their circulation *as advertisements in the
Anstralian papers ; one gentleman spending week

196 Twf Thousand Printed Sermons.

by week a sum which we scarcely dare to mention^
lest it should not be believed.'' In a sense, Mr.
Spurgeon is a preacher to the whole Protestant
world ; and if any doubt this remarkable fact,
let them note what he himself says about the
general diffusion of these pulpit discourses:—-

^ In America the sale of the edition published
there was extremely large, and I believe that it
still continues; but dozens of religious papers
appropriate the sermons bodily, and, therefore, it
is quite impossible to say where they go, or,
rather, where they do not go. Of translations, the
Dutch have been most plentiful, making large
volumes. An edition of two volumes of selected
sermons has been circulated in the colony of the
Cape of Good Hope, among the Dutch settlers of
that r^on. In German there are three noble
volumes, besides many smaller ones. German
publishers, with the exception of Mr. Oncken, of
Hamburg, seldom have the courtesy to send the
author a copy ; and I have picked up in divers
places sermons bearing date from Baden, Basle,
Carlsruhe, Ludwigsburg, and so on. How many,
therefore, may have been sold in Germany I am
unable to compute. In French several neat
volumes have appeared ; in Welsh and Italian one
volume each. In Sweden a handsome edition in
four volumes has been largely circulated, and the

Various Translalions. 197

translator informed me of the conversion of some
of noble and even royal birth through their
perusal. Besides these, there are single sermons
in Spanish, Gaelic, Danish, Russ, Maori, Telugu,
and some other tongues, and permission has been
sought and gladly given for the production of a
volume in the language of Hungary.**

Did literature represent his sole profession, the
fruits of Mr. Spurgeon's pen could not be ex-
pected to be more abundant than they are, even
though the sermons be left out of the category.
Authorship is to him a pleasure as well as a
duty ; and he evidently values literary power as
a sacred trust to be accounted for hereafter.

At the present date Mr. Spurgeon has published
not far short of two thousand separate sermons
in the regular weekly series, besides hundreds of
others^ so that the position he occupies as a
popular preacher is not only extraordinary, but
absolutely unique. There are volumes of sermons
which have commanded, and still continue to
command, a large sale ; there is not, however,
another instance on record of a pastor's utterances
attracting tens of thousands of purchasers through
a third of a century. If we examine the quality
of the earliest numbers of the series we shall

198 Two Thousand Printed Sermons.

abundant reason for their instant popularitjr. By
many, whose judgment is worthy of respect, these
earliest productions are thought to be quite equal
to anything which has followed. The glow of
sanctified genius b 00 every page ; and the
volumes are pervaded by the warm zeal and
freshness of youth which are irresistible. Indeed,
I have been told by a gentleman who heard the
Pastor of the Tabernacle on the first day of his
preaching in London, and who hears him still, that
Mr. Spurgeon has never improved, nor has he ever
grown in the sense that others grow — he was sent
forth complete at first, just as Minerva was never
a child, but sprang at once fully armed from the
head of Jupiter. Though not prepared to acquiesce
in such a judgment without some qualification, I
think it is well to record it as a characteristic of a
prevalent opinion. The pastor of a Nonconformist
church might also be quoted, who considers that
the earlier sermons are even superior to those of
to-day.

Hence there was every prospect of the under-
taking proving a commercial success when Mr.
Joseph Passmore, at the close of the year 1854,
proposed to the Pastor that a discourse should be
issued regularly every week ; for long prior to his
preaching days the idea had come uninvited into
the mind of Mr. Spurgeon himself, that he would

f«

Much Fear and Trembling^ 199

" one day preach sermons which would be printed."
|t would appear that some time elapsed before
the preacher even thoroughly believed in his
own popularity. The sermons had sold in an un-
paralleled manner as occasional publications ; but
when a shrewd, far-seeing publisher asked if the
publication should be advanced into a weekly
institution, the answer in the affirmative was given
^ with much fear and trembling.**

In the preface to the first volume of the
published discourses, dated January 1856, the
remark occurs : ^ Little can be said in praise of
these sermons, and nothing can be said against
them more bitter than has been already spoken.**
The author also declares that he is ^ invulnerable
either to criticism or abuse.** The admission is
then conceded that a departure has been ventured
on ''from the usual mode of preaching.** An
answer b also given to the question, What is
Calvinism ? It is not a slavish adherence to the
views of one man ; the word is rather a brief and
convenient one to express ^ that salvation is by
grace alone.** There are things in the book which
may provoke a smile, but what of them ? The
preacher ^ b not quite sure about a smile being
a sin, and, at any rate, he thinks it less crime to
cause a momentary hiughter than a half hour*a
profound slumber.**

300 Two Thousand Printed Sermons.

A little more than a year after Mr. Spurgeon's
settlement at New Park Street a scheme was set
on foot for the enlargement of the chapel, which
was ultimately carried out at a cost of ;C2,ooo.
On the last Sabbath of Januaiy 1855a collection
was made for this object The text was, '* Thou
hast made us unto our God kings and priests.*'
The inferences at the close were, ** I am king, I
will give as a king giveth unto a king.^ A priest,
if he sacrificed, was not to g^ve a maimed lamb or
A blemished bullock. ^ Excuse my pressing this
subject,'' the preacher continued. ^ I want to get
this chapel enlarged ; we are all agreed about it ;
we are all rowing in one boat. I have set my
mind on j^SO, and I must and will have it to-day
if possible. I hope you won't disappoint me."
As a result of this appeal the people at once
placed £$0 in the plates held at the doors, and
elevenpence halfpenny over.

On the 8th of July, 1855, while preaching at
New Park Street from the words of the Psalmist,
''He shall choose our inheritance for us," Mr.
Spurgeon referred to the delights of hearing a
sermon, which had for so long been denied to
himself. He sometimes felt that he should
occasionally like to sit down to the feast in God's
house, and not always be a serving-man. '^ I am
sure I shouldi be s:lad to hear a sermon ; it b a

Seeing a Sermon at BfistoL 201

long time since I heard one ; but when I do
attend one it always tires me — I want to be
improving on it** His sermons were now being
published regularly ; he was preaching incessantly
in the week, so that the opportunities for hearing
were necessarily almost nil. At this time he had
not long completed his twentieth year.

According to his own confession^ however,
Mn Spurgeon this year saw and heard something
striking at Bristol. After coming away from
Geoi^e M liner's Orphan House, he said, ^ I never
heard such a sermon in my life as I saw there."
When asked to address the children, he replied,
** I could not speak a word for the life of me." He
then received a lesson touching the power of faith
which bore abundant fruit ; and in connection with
this theme we have some first hints respecting
the Metropolitan Tabernacle. ^I sometimes
think we will try the power of faith here," he
told his people oc the first Sabbath evening in
November, " and see if we could not get sufBcient
funds whereby to erect a place to hold the people
that crowd to hear the Word of God. We may
have a tabernacle of faith as well as an orphan*
house of faith."

The first volume of the sermons was reprinted
in America, and at once attained a circulation of
twenty thousand copies. This year, 1855, the

203 Two Thousand Printed Sermons.

second of his ministry in London, he called ^a
year of miracles" in a sermon preached on
December 30th ; and among other causes for
gratitude was the fact that two hundred and ten
persons were added to the church, while others
were coming in.

On the 6th of January, 1856, at New Park
Street, he referred to his conversion, which had
taken place exactly six years previously, and at
that hour of the day. ^ Seeking rest and finding
none,** he said, '' I stepped within the house of
God, and sat there, afraid to look upward, lest I
should be utterly cut off, and lest His fierce wrath
should consume me. The minister rose in his
pulpit, and as I have done this morning, read this
text — ^ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the
ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there it
none else.' I looked that moment; the grace
of faith was vouchsafed to me in the selfsame
instant" *

Shortly after, or on the loth of February, he
preached on behalf of the Baptist Fund, an insti-
tution founded in London for the relief of poor
ministers in 1717. Some of the illustrations of
poverty were as sad as they were striking. Some
ministers, when they ascended the pulpit stairs,

* As remarked elsewhere, the pulpit in which this sermon
was preached is to be seen at the Stockwell Oq>hanage.

Tke Music-HaU Accident. 303

had to be careful lest they tore their worn-out
coats. The case of a preacher without means
was also mentioned, a man who walked twenty
miles and preached two sermons, and received
from the deacons a shilling for his services.
Another walked eight miles, found no one to give
him a dinner, preached three sermons, and was
rewarded with half-a-crown. The claims of the
Baptist Fund were strongly advocated

On the first Sabbath of the November following,
Mr. Spurgepn preached at New Park Street for the
first time after the fatal accident at the Surrey
Grardens. He said that he almost regretted having
undertaken to preach, scarcely feeling equal to
the task. The text was Philippians ii. 9-1 1 :
^Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and
givm him a name which is above every name,
etc

This text, and the occasion of its being chosen,
became more than ever interesting when we are
further acquainted with the circumstances of the
case. Thus at the Pastors' College Conference,
held in April 1879, he mentioned a fact in con-
nection with the accident at the Surrey Gardens
Music-Hall which is not generally known. He said
that the effect on his mind was such that he was
nearly imbecile for a fortnight The newspapers
wrote as though he were responsible for the death

204 Two Thousand Printed Sermons.

of the unfortunate people, and the slanders were
almost more than he could bear. Such» too, was
the agitation of his mind, joined to the assaults of
Satan, that he seemed to lose the desire for pra}rer
and for reading the Scriptures. He went away
into the country ; and he related how relief came
in an instant while walking in the garden of the
house where he was staying. The words^ ^ God
hath given him a name,** etc, flashed into his
mind, and he seeing at once that all must be right,
whatever the enemy might suggest, his joy vras
immediately as unspeakably great as his grief had
previously been. He even went down on his
knees on the gravel to give thanks.

After a storm of trial and persecution, the
preface to the volume of sermons for 1857 strikes
a more cheerful note. The preacher speaks of
the winter being past and the spring-time of
renewed vigour and peace having come. ^The
congregations during the year have been immense
and enthusiastic," he says. ^ Our church meetings
have been joyous occasions, for we have heard
marvellous stories of profligates reclaimed, drunk-
ards converted, and desponding souls delivered.^
He now realised that in the hands of God he was
far more than the mere pastor of a church ; he
seems to have felt that he was an evangelist raised
up for a special work. Hence ''the sermons

A Sermon at the Crystal Palace. 205

preached at the music-hall are intended to arrest
the attention of the careless, and alarm the con-
sciences of the hardened. The reader will not,
therefore, find in them that fulness and depth of
doctrine which he may desire." It may be noted
that on the 7th of October in this year Mr.
Spurgeon preached at the Crystal Palace, Syden-
ham, to a congregation of twenty-four thousand
people, the occasion '* being the day appointed by
Proclamation for a Solemn Fast, Humiliation, and
Prayer before Almighty God : in order to obtain
Pardon of our Sins, and for imploring His Blessing
and Assistance on our Arms for the Restoration
of Tranquillity in India."

The flow of success continued throughout the
year 1858. The best results continued to arise
from the reading of the sermons. " In lonely
places there are churches of Christ whose only
ministry is found in these pages, save when a
passing evangelist is led to open his mouth among
them," we are told. In rooms in the crowded
haunts of poverty these are read to hundreds
who could scarcely understand any language more
refined ; while at races and fairs, and even at
pilgrimages of the Romish church, these have
been used by earnest brethren as a means of
obtaining an audience in the open air.'* During
this )rear the circulation of the sermons at home

2o6 Two Thousand Printed Sermons.

and abroad was more than sustained. No less
than a hundred and fifty thousand volumes had
already been sold In the United States ; in
Australia more than one edition was printed,
while translations appeared in several of the
European languages, besides one in Welsh. In
the meantime the weekly issue in London was
as popular as ever.

Two providential deliverances occurred this
year, which many will still remember. On
Wednesday, the 7th of April, Mr. Spui^eon
preached at Halifax, when, in consequence of a
fall of snow and severe wintry weather, he did
not anticipate meeting a veiy extensive congre-
gation. A temporaiy building was erected,
however, and from five to six thousand persons
were found assembled. In the afternoon all went
well ; but in the evening a gallery planned to hold
two thousand people suddenly gave way after the
service, when two persons were injured. ^Now
had this happened any earlier, not only must
many have been injured," said Mr. Spurgeon to his
congregation at the Surrey Gardens, '^but there
are a thousand chances to one, as we say, that a
panic must necessarily have ensued, similar to
that which we still remember and deplore as
having occurred in this place. Had such a thing
occurred, and had I been the unhappy preacher

Sickness of the Preacher. 307

on the occasion, I feel certain that I should never
have been able to occupy the pulpit again. Such
was the effect of the first calamity that I marvel
that I ever survived"

Six months later, or on the morning of October
lothy he appeared at the great music-hall, after
having experienced in the week ^excruciating
pain and continual sickness.** After this he was
laid aside, and the next published number of the
weekly sermon was one preached at Exeter Hall
more than two years before. Though so old, the
preacher prayed that the utterances might ^ bud
afresh and bring forth fruit, even as old com, after
having been entombed in Egyptian sepulchres for
centuries, will often germinate again and yield an
abundant crop.'* For three weeks the issue of
old sermons continued, and a letter from the
Pastor appears in each. In one he refers to the
timbers in his frail barque having been made to
creak ; in another he speaks of the memorable
panic of two years before. On the 7th of
November he again occupied the pulpit

In the course of the year 1859 several sermons
were preached which were made wonderfully
useful in awakening the careless. They continued
to command a veiy extensive sale in America,
and not only in a separate form but in the news-
papers. Thus * in the midst of a mass of frivolity

2o8 Two TAousand Printed Sermons.

and romance the weekly sermon stands like an
ambassador in bonds, hopeful, nevertheless, that
its free voice may overcome the discordant cries
which try to drown its utterance.**

On the 13th of March in this year, at the
Surrey Gardens, Mr. Spurgeon referred to the
opening of his ministry, and again preached from
his first text : ^ It is about eight years since, as
a lad of sixteen, I stood up for the first time in
my life to preach the Gospel in a cottage to a
handful of poor people who had come together
for worship. I felt my own inability to preach,
but I ventured to take this text, 'Unto you there*
fore which believe. He is precious. * "

No& 268, 269, and 270 of TAe New Pari
Street Pulpit are filled with an account of ^ the
ceremony of laying the first stone of the new
Tabernacle," which ceremony was performed by
Sir S. M. Peto on the i6th of August Many
honoured brethren who graced that occasion by
their presence have since gone home to heaven.
There were two meetings, one on the ground in
the afternoon, and one at Rea's Repositoiy in
the evening. *^ In the bottle which is to be
placed under the stone we have put no money,"
remarked the Pastor, **for one good reason — ^we
have none to spare. We have not put newa-
paper% because, albeit we admire and love the

Building the Tabernacle. 209

liberty of the press, yet that is not so immediately
concerned in this edifice. The articles placed
under the stone are simply these : the Bible, the
Word of God — ^we put that as the foundation of
the church* Upon this rock doth Christ build
the ministration of His truth. We know of
nothing else as our standard. Together with this
we have put the old Baptist Confession of Faith
which was signed in the olden times by Benjamin
Keachy whose name is in this book. We put also
the declaration of the deacons^ which you have just
heard read, printed on parchment There b also
an edition of Dr. Rippon's Hymn-Book printed
just before he died ; and then, in the last place^
there is a programme of this day^s proceedings.**

One of the speakers present at the evening
meeting was Judge Payne, who, as a matter of
course, composed a tailpiece, besides indulging
in some sensible wit ^ Now what does C H. S.
mean ? '* he asked, glancing at one of the decora-
tions. ^Why, it means, first, Charles Haddon
Spurgeon ; but / do not mean that C. H. S.
means a Clear Headed Speaker^ who is Clever at
Handling Subjects in a Cheerful Hearted Style.
He is a Captain of the Hosts of Surrey ; he is a
Cold Hating Spirit; he has Chapel Heating Skill;
he is a Catholic Humbug Smasher / he is a Care^
Hushing Soother ; he is a Child Helping

2IO Two Thousand Printed Sermons.

Strengthener : he is a Christ Honouring Soldier;
add he is Christ s Honoured Servant^

At this meeting one of the most interesting
speeches of the evening was made by the Pastor's
father, the Rev. John Spurgeon, who also gave
some reminiscences of his son's youthful days
given elsewhere.

In i860 Mr. Spurgeon felt the pressure of
having to sustain a weekly publication. * No
man can well conceive what a drain it is upon a
preacher to have his sermons constantly printed/'
he remarked ; *^ he can scarcely hope to avoid
repetition, and will be constantly in danger of
running dry." Having preached for the last time
lit the Surrey Gardens on the nth of December,
1859, he adds, ^This sixth year saw us sorrow-
fully removing from the Surrey Music-Hail to a
far less convenient spot." Individual sermons
are mentioned which had been abundantly useful
in the conversion of sinners, while the translation
of the discourses into Swedish had very greatly
increased the circulation.

The morning service was now conducted in
Exeter Hall until the 3rd of June, when Mr.
Spurgeon departed for the Continent on a brief
tour. During his absence several sermons preached
at New Park Street on Sabbath evenings appeared
in the weekly issue. He appeared again at

Opening of the Tabernacle^ 3 1 1

Exeter Hall on the 29th of July; and on Tuesday ,
the 2 1 St of August, gave an account of his con-
tinental tour to a large audience in the unfinished
Tabernacle.

The year 1861 saw the presentation made of
two hundred thousand copies of the Sermons to the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The dis*
courses still continued to be published in numbers
of American newspapers, while they were read
from village pulpits in our own country. This
was the year of the opening of the Tabernacle,
and the preliminary services extended through
a month. The first prayer-meeting was held at
seven o'clock a.m., on Monday, the i8th of March;
and on the afternoon of the Monday following
Mr. Spurgeon preached his first sermon in the
building, the text being Acts v. 42 : ^ And daily
in the temple, and in every house, they ceased
not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ" In the
volume of sermons for this year there are three
which are not by Mr. Spurgeon, the preachers
having been Messrs. Brock, Stowell Brown, and
Octavius Winslow. On the afternoon and in the
evening of April nth, meetings were held for
the Exposition of the Doctrines of Grace. After
an introductory address by Mr. Spurgeon the
following subjects were very ably handled by
successive speakers. Election : Mr. J. Bloomfield.

313 Two Thomand Printed Sermons.

Human Depravity: Mr. Evan Probert. Particular
Redemption : Mr. J. A. Spurgeon. Effectual Call*
ing: Mr. James Smith. The Final Preservation
of tht Saints : Mr. W. CNeUL On the follow-
ing evening Mr. Henry Vincent gave an oration
in the chapel on Nonconformity^ and this also
appears in the volume of sermons.

In 1862 a friend scattered *^ a large number of
sermons in the colleges and towns of Ireland.
Working with great discretion, he sowed the seed
so rapidly in each place that, before the foul bird,
the Popish priest, could hasten to stop him, the
work was done."

On the 30th of Januaiy Mr. Spurgeon preached
on the Hartley Colliery Accident, from the words
of Job. xiv. 14, ''If a man die, shall he live
again ? " The evening was wet and cold ; but
the people nevertheless mustered in force, and the
sum of ;^I20 was collected for the relief fund.
On the 9th of November he also preached on
behalf of the distress in Lancashire.

In consequence of the abolition of the duty
on paper, the sermons commenced appearing in
large type in the opening of 1862. The last of
the small type series has a mourning border,
having been preached on the occasion of the
death of the good Prince Consort

During the year 1863 a mention is made of

A Memorable Controversy. 213

<^m

the friends who send texts for the Pastor to
handle. ''This we cannot engage to do/' he says.
^ Our habit has been to look to the Lord for our
guidance, and when a text comes with power to
our soul we preach from it without hesitation ;
but as we dare not select our own themes, so
neither can we receive those suggested to us,
unless our Master sends them upon our heart'*

The following year was the era of the great
Baptismal Regeneration controversy, and the fact
is mentioned that at the close of the year the
sermons on the question of baptism had reached
a circulation of 300,000. The principal discourse
was preached on the 5th of June ; and the con-
troversy awakened may still be estimated by the
scores of pamphlets which were published on
both sides. Before this storm had subsided the
Pastor dropped " The Reverend '* as a ministerial
title. It appears for the last time on the sermon
number 587, and preached on August 28 th.
In the following week, and ever since, the name
is printed simply, C. H. Spurgeon.

In the preface to the Sermons for 1865 it is
said that the ** weekly circulation has during the
past year been fully maintained,** ''while proofs
of usefulness are as numerous and encouraging
as ever.** With January of this year commenced
The Sword and the Trowel^ which at once did

314 Ttvo Thousand Printed Sermons.

great service to the cause nea.est the Editor'i
heart Towards the end of the year there ap-
peared a notice of a bazaar to be held in the
Tabernacle, the proceeds to be devoted to the
work of chapel building in London. '' From the
success already achieved/' said Mr. Spurgeon, ** I
am encouraged to attempt yet greater things,
and to seek the erection, during the year 1866,
of several new buildings.^ Just at this time a
pamphlet, which has long since been forgotten,
occasioned the Pastor some annoyance. He was
compelled to give notice that he had not written
the brochure^ and that he was shocked at the
manner in which a professed minister of the
Gospel had employed his name to give weight to
prophecies which were ridiculous raving^

With the close of his twelfth volume in 1866
the preacher rejoiced in the thought that he was
still teaching the same Old Gospel with which he
had commenced. *^ Our twelve volumes, like the
sons of Jacob, can say, ' we are all one man's sons,
we are true men.' In fundamentals we remain
like the oak, rooted to the same soil, although in
circumstantials here and there a branch spreads
itself otherwise than it did ten years ago. Growth
there should be, but not wanton change." Now
we begin to see the first notice of the Colportage
Association. Persons disposed to aid the new

Mr. Spurgeon and the Quakers. 215

scheme were reminded of the " sellers of trinkets "
who ages ago on the Continent carried the Bible
in their packs as '' the best of jewels " ; and of the
pedlars who in the seventeenth century carried
the best books of the Puritans throughout Eng-
land. It was at this time also that Mr. Spurgeon
appeared for the first time among the Quakers.
•' Our belief was, and still is," he said, " that it
is the bounden duty of the Society of Friends in
these perilous times to renew more distinctly their
testimony against formalism, ritualism, and on-
spiritual worship in its many forms, and we hoped
that a respectful brotherly admonition might be
accepted by them and owned of God." On the
6th of November he addressed a gathering of
twelve hundred Friends at their head-quarters in
Bishopsgate, feeling at the time much physical
pain, and weighed down with a sense of responsi-
bility.

After six years' wear and tear, the Tabernacle
was renovated in the spring of 1867, and Mr.
Spurgeon preached to vast congregations in the
Islington Agricultural Hall, on five consecutive
Sabbath mornings. The volume of sermons for
1 867 was the last which contained a preface ; and
as the succeeding volumes come more within the
recollection of readers than those noticed, there is
no need to continue these jottings. The circula*

2i6 Two Thousand Printed Sermons.

tion is still maintained, and the crowds attracted
to the Tabernacle show no signs of diminution.
As Mr. Spurgeon is only fifty-two, it may be
supposed that, according to the ordinary course of
nature, he has much of the best part of life before
him. Let friends far and near unite to pray that
physical strength may be granted to the preacher
who has been chosen of God for the accomplish-
ment of great things, and whose enforced inactivity
is a real loss to the churdu

ms FREACHSIfS RBWAMD—ANBCDOTMS
ABOUT THB SERMQN&.

"WhAt is the cfown of a dnueh? WdL tome cfanrdMt httve om
crown« and tome another. I have heard of a church whoee crown waa
its organ — the biggest organ, the finest organ ever played, and tlM
choir the most wonderful choir that ever was. Everybody in tlM
district said, ' Now if you want to go to a place where you will have
fine music that is the spot' Our musical friends may wear that crown
if they please. I will never pluck at it or decry it ; I fed no temptation
in that direction. I have heard of others whose crown has been the
intellect. There are very few people indeed, not as many people by one-
tenth as there are sittings, but then they are such a select people, the
iliU, the thoughtful and intelligent 1 The ministry is such that only
one in a hundred can possibly understand what is said, and the one in
the hundi^ who does understand it, it therefore a most remaritahle
person. That it their crown. Again I my I will not filch it What-
ever there may be that is desirable about it the brother who wears it
shall wear it all his days for me. I have heard of other crowns;
amongst the rest, that of being ' a most respectable church.* All the
people are respectable. The minister of course is respectable. I beliew
he is ' Reverend,' or, 'Very Reverend,' and everybody and thing about
him is to the last degree 'respectable.' Fustian jackets and cotton
gowns are vramed off by the surpassing dignity of everything in and
around the place. As for a working man, such a creature is never seen
on the premises, and could not be supposed to be ; and if he were to come
be would say, ' The preacher preaches double Dutch or Greek, or som^
thing of the sort ; he would not hear language he could understand*
This is not a very brilliant crown — this crown of respectability : it certainly
never flashed ambition into my souL But our crown under God has
been this, — the poor have the Gospel prfeached unto them, souls are

saved, and Christ is glorified."— A/mmtm/ ^ Si/tftr Wtdding TesH-
momial, pp. ^ 04.

VIIL

THE PREACHEIVS REWARD-- ANECh\ fMS
ABOUT THE SERMONS.

ONE of the peculiarities of the preaci ing of
Whitefield was the large number of j ersons
who would be convicted of sin under one sc rmon ;
but in the case of Mr. Spurgeon we hwe to
take into account the world-wide audience which,
through the printed sermons, he is always ad-
dressing. With his matchless voice, the great
preacher of the last century may have been able
to deliver his message to some twenty or thirty
thousand persons ; but that was a small number
indeed when compared with the hundreds of
thousands in the Old and the New World, and
at the antipodes, who, as may be said, make up
Mr. Spurgeon's regular congregation. Then, in ad-
dition to the English-speaking race, the sermons
are also being read in many foreign languages
into which they have been translated. The
position occupied by the preacher is thus quite
unique, nothing like it ever having been known

220 The Preachet^s Reward.

before. During some years past instances of use-
fulness of the printed sermons, under the head of
^Personal Notes,** have appeared in The Sword
and the Trowel^ and from these we borrow our
illustrations for the present chapter.

We suppose that the examples of enemies
tamed have been many ; but one striking instance
of this kind was that of a gentleman who was
greatly prejudiced against Mr. Spurgeon, and
dissenters generally, until he visited the Metro-
politan Tabernacle, which visit was brought about
in a somewhat remarkable manner. ^ Some time
after my conversion I came to London,** says the
son of this gentleman. * A few weeks later my
father was up for a few days, and wishing to
see me, I proposed Sunday morning as my only
convenient time, and the Metropolitan Tabernacle
as a midway meeting-place. I so arranged that
we met there just as the crowds were flocking
into the building. As I guessed would be the
case, seeing such crowds pressing in, my father
could not resist the temptation to follow.** The
result was that he was greatly affected by the
sermon — " Deep calleth unto deep," No. 865 —
and from being an enemy of the preacher the
astonished hearer was changed into one of Mr.
Spurgeon's most steadfast friends. ^ I am thank-
ful to testify,'* added his son, ^that what light

Giving Joy to the Poor. 221

and peace he had came through the Metropolitan
Tabernacle sermons."

On one occasion a thank-offering of jf 5, which
came to the College funds, is connected with the
welcome story of the conversion of a prodigal.
The father of the young man in question derived
some consolation from a sermon by Mr. Spurgeon
on the Prodigal Son, and he sent a request that
the youth might be prayed for at the ordinary
Monday evening prayer-meeting. The prayer was
answered, the young man became a changed
character ; and the joy of the father found vent
in the giving of the thank-offering mentioned.

Probably it is a great joy to the Pastor to
know that his discourses are frequently a source
of great joy to the very poor among his flock.
A friend who visits in a certain village of
Middlesex tells of an old needlewoman who could
not attend public worship regularly. At the best
she was not fible to earn more than a sorry
pittance ; but nevertheless, when on a Saturday
night she would find herself with no more than
threepence to last until Monday, she would still
spare a penny for the weekly sermon, after buying
what bread and tea she could obtain for two-
pence. What kind of satisfaction she found in
the perusal of the weekly numbers was seen in
ber confession, to the effect that when she gpt

223 The Preachet^s Reward.

into the cream of the sermon she would not
change places with the Queen herself. She was
often so interested that she would even forget to
eat her bread; but at the same time her solicitude
for others was so great, that when the numbers
accumulated she went abroad to distribute them,
so that others might share the blessing with
herself.

When the Hants Congregational Union met
at Bournemouth in 1881, a deacon who was
present enlivened the proceedings by narrating
the following : ** About seven years since a poor
woman had saved up a few pounds of money
and was going into the town of Christchurch to
purchase some things. By some means she lost
her purse, which contained a five-pound note^
one pound in gold, and some fourteen shillings
in silver. She was much distressed at her loss,
and had some hand-bills circulated offering a
reward for the restoration of her property. A
person found the purse and appropriated the
whole of its contents, and nothing has been heard
of the affair until a fortnight since, when a gentle-
man went to the printer of the handbill and
asked if he could remember the incident On
looking over his file he saw the bill, and the
whole of the circumstances came to his mind.
The gentleman then said, * You must ask me no

A Dying Youth. 223

questions, but the purse will be restored.' A few
days afterwards the identical purse, with the
amount of money lost, and £l for interest, was
sent to the rightful owner. The cause which
brought this about was reading SpurgeorCs Sermons!*

There was a youth who died in 1881 who had
always been an invalid ; and who just before his
death settled his little money accounts, appor-
tioning £^0 to Mr. Spurgeon's work. " As you
will suppose," wrote a relative to the Pastor in
September 1881, "he has been for some time
taking an interest in your work for Christ, and
one of the greatest enjoyments of his life was the
hearing you preach one Sunday last spring. He
has read your sermons, etc, for a long time, and
distributed them among our poor neighbours^
His life has been one of much suffering, chiefly
from asthma; but now consumption is carrying him
off, and he is lying in the most peaceful, tranquil
state, waiting the Master's call." The sufferer
said he should value a word from Mr. Spurgeon ;
but although the Pastor wrote by return of post
his interesting correspondent died before the
letter could reach him.

Among the converts from Ritualism a case
occurred of a young man who yielded to the
seductions of that Romanising sect after he had
been educated as a nonconformist He became a

224 ^^ Preachet^s Reward.

thorough Anglican, he even went to confession to
his vicar ; but when disease set in and showed him
that he must shortly leave the present world, he
found that the specious doctrines of his new friends
would not do, and probably he had never very
sincerely believed in them. Of course he had
heard of Mr. Spurgeon ; and having expressed a
desire to see some of his works, the wish was very
readily complied with, and the invalid then found
what he wanted. A Christian friend also con-
versed with him, until at last the young man
sihowed the possession of a triumphant faith,
and so he died.

A friend who happened to be travelling through
Nottingham was asked to visit a dying woman at
a public-house ; but instead of wanting any in-
struction or consolation, the woman was found tc
be rejoicing in Christ ; and on being asked how
she had found such peace, she showed a piece of
torn newspaper containing a passage from one
of Mr. Spurgeon's Sermons, and which had come
with a parcel from Australia. ^ Talk about the
hidden life of the good seed I " remarked the
friend referred to. "Think of that sermon
preached in London, conveyed to America, an
extract reprinted in a newspaper there, that
paper sent to Australia, part then torn off (as we
should say accidentally), the parcel dispatched to

Novel Mode of DistribtUian. 225

England, and, after all its wanderings, conveys the
message of salvation to the woman's souL God's
Word shall not return to Him void.**

An evangelist to whom the sermons were
supplied gratuitously by a friend thus shows
how the numbers may be widely distributed in a
country district: '^I know a baker in Norfolk, and
to him I send some to distribute among the poor
families to whom he delivers his bread, as he goes
through the village with his cart In the same
way, by post and other means, to other individuals,
as to so many centres, getting them to lend them
from house to house amongst their neighbours. I
make a few sermons reach a wide circle, chiefly
among those who else would never see them.
Nor has this been without results, as I have from
time to time intimated. Scores have felt in a
measure what one * woman experienced from
reading one ; it gave her so much comfort that she
told me she had read it a hundred times, and that
with undiminished pleasure, and wore it in her
bosom until she tore it to tatters/'

Of the manner in which the sermons are read
by the clergy, and also used by them to good
purpose, is shown by Mrs. Spurgeon in her work
on the Book Fund ; but of course many other
examples might be given. Thus, in one instancy
a certain evangelical clergyman, who was quite as

136 Tike Preachet^s Reward.

useful as he was popular, accidentally left his bag
at a country railway-station in Kent The rail*
way authorities looked into the bag, as they are
accustomed to do, in order to discover, if possible,
some trace of ownership ; but on this occasion no
revelation was forthcoming beyond what could
be given by a number of marked and otherwise
well-used copies of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons. In
due time a telegram arrived to ask the station-
master to kindly forward the bag to its reverend
owner, who possibly would have continued his
useful labours with more difficulty had the bag
been irrecoverably lost

Our friends in the North have ever regarded
Mr. Spui^eon as one of their most favourite
divines; and thus I will now give some facts
illustrative of the work of the sermons in Scotland.

In 1 88 1 a certain fisherman sent to the Pastor
a very pleasantly-told account of his conversion :
^ I remember a colporteur coming to my mother's
house, and he asked me if I would buy a book,**
our northern friend remarks. ** * Yes,' says I, * if
you have got any ballads, that is, Scotch song^s.'
So he says to me, ' If you give me a piece of fish
I will give you something that will do you more
good than ballads.' I saw he desired my good^
so I gave him half a codfish, and he gave me
one of your sermons. The text was^ ' Look unto

A Highland Community. 22 J

Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for
I am God and there is none else.' (^ Sovereignty
and Salvation,** No. 60.) While reading that
sermon the blessed Spirit of God enlightened my
understanding, and I saw Jesus set before me as
my Saviour. Blessed hour i Happy day I Jesus
washed my sins away/*

On one occasion a certain pastor lost himself
in one of the Highland glens ; he found the
natives to be a kindly race, and although they
had little notion of either Lord Beaconsfield or
Mr. Gladstone, they were extremely familiar with
the name of Spurgeon. ^They had a sort of
knowledge of that name, for they read your
sermons, and fetched a lot out to show me that
they did so,** remarked the pastor referred to.
^ I assure you,** he adds, " I never saw any man's
works with such signs of use upon them. There
was no kirk in the glen, so on Sundays they got
together and had a service, the scholar of the
place reading the sermon." One aged pilgrim
declared he would go to Glasgow on his hands
and knees to see the preacher ; and though hardly
competent to walk as many yards without effort,
as it was miles to the commercial metropolis, the
light in his eye bespoke his intense earnestness.

On the little island called the Skerries Rock
there is a lighthouse, and, including the keepers of

328 The Preachers Reward.

this, there were in all sixteen individuals In the
place ; and having no church they can go to, they
are accustomed to conduct a service for themselves
on the Lord's Day. **Thus/' says The Free Church
Monthly for December 1882, ^the words to which
thousands in London listen every week, and which
are read in every comer of the world, are feeding
and comforting the sixteen inhabitants of a lonely
rock, beaten by the fierce waters that surge in the
Pentland Firth."

While staying at a certain health-resort, a kind-
hearted friend laid a number of the sermons on
the table of the coffee-room at the hotel; but
while many were pleased to have an opportunity
of reading the numbers, there was a certain ** stiff
aged churchman" who protested against the In-
troduction of ''the works of a man who cursed
our church." Then a Christian lady came to
the help of the Quakeress, telling how both she
and her husband prized the sermons highly, and
how useful they had been in a district at Aberdeen.
In that city there had dwelt a soldier ''whose
hardened, wretched condition baffled all the
Christian labours bestowed upon him, until she
lent him 'Only Trust Him' (No. 1635)," when
that became instrumental in his conversion. Then
"Jesus Only" (No. 924) had proved equally
useful in the case of a Romanist, a most miserable

Softening of an " Old Rebel'' 229

being, who till that moment was placing her
dependence in confession and penance. The
transformation of both of these was described as
having been really remarkable. Still more striking,
however, was the change which came over the
venerable churchman after the lady who had
given these instances had departed. He even
allowed his Quaker friend to read to him the
sermons which had proved so useful, and re-
marked, ^ The venom is passing away. I feel it
going. I shall buy those sermons and send
them to my Broad Church son, and I hope they
will do him and his wife good, and that he will
preach them in his church." The gentleman
went even so far as to confess that the discourses
had *^ softened an old rebel." This is a memorable
instance of the power of the Word.

When he was in Scotland in the summer of
1883, Mr. Spurgeon heard of many instances of
usefulness through the sermons, especially in lonely
Highland districts. ^In one far-away village in
the north,** it is remarked, ^ the little country
shop is opened on Saturdays expressly for the
sale of the sermons ; and what the customers
want is so clearly understood, that often not a
word is spoken by either buyer or seller, but the
people walk in, put down the penny, and march
off with the sermon that is to be their Sabbath

330 The Preachet^s Reward.

feast. In a Convalescent Home every Sabbath
evening during the winter the matron reads one
of the sermons to the inmates, who appear to be
very grateful for them."

Not very long ago, or in 1884, one of Mr.
Spurgeon's evangelists gave a very telling anec-
dote : * A woman in Scotland who was determined,
as far as possible, not to have anything to do
with religion, threw her Bible, and all the tracts
she could find in her house, into the fire. One
of the tracts fell down out of the flames, so she
picked it up and thrust it in again. A second time
it slipped down, and once more she put it back.
Again her evil intention was frustrated, but the
next time she was more successful, though even
then only half of it was consumed. Taking up
the portion that fell out of the fire she exclaimed,
* Surely the devil is in that tract, for it won't bum ! '
Her curiosity was excited ; she began to read it,
and it was the means of her conversion. The
^ tract ' was one of the sermons published in The
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. Verily, that ser-
mon, and the woman too, were saved^ yet to as
by fire:'

The above instances sufficiently testify to the
popularity of the sermons in Scotland ; but accord-
ing to the witness of a certain Methodist minister,
who wrote in 1880, the discourses are equally

The Sermons in Ulster. 231

valued in some parts of Ireland. ** Many a time
these few years I have wondered whether you
know that you are preaching in unnumbered pulpits
every Lord's Day, in many cases word for word as
reported in your volumes," remarks this friend
in a letter to Mr. Spurgeon. ** You are aware, I
suppose, that the weekly sermon is read by two-
thirds of the Protestants in Ulster? In some
cases ten families join in taking it, and lend it
from one to another." After this we need not
wonder that the Protestants of Ulster should
regard Mr. Spurgeon as their adviser-in-general,
even on political matters ; and that they should
have asked his opinion in regard to Home Rule
when they were threatened with Mr. Gladstone's
innovations.

We believe it was a Welsh dame who remarked,
that if he only wanted one of his eyes Mr. Spurgeon
would be worthy to come after Christmas Evans;
but be that as it may, the preacher's utterances are
as well calculated to be useful in Wales as else-
where. In one instance, at least, the good which
a couple of young men derived from the reading of
the sermons did not end with themselves. They
were encouraged to begin a Sabbath-school, and
having commenced in two cottages with five
scholars, they soon wanted more room, and th^
progressed until at length they were enabled to

23t The Preachef^s Reward.

put up a building in which between two and
three hundred children could be taught at once.
Beyond this, they took care to circulate more
than eighty copies of the sermons every week.

At Bryher, which is one of the Scilly Isles, the
hundred and twenty persons who make up the
population have a chapel as well as a church for
their accommodation ; and when service is held in
the one place the custom is for the other to be
dosed. In 1880, when the intelligence was re-
ceived, it was a usual thing for the sexton zxkC
clerk of the church to read one of Mr. Spurgeon s
sermons in the chapel, and then to give out
Wesley's Hymns for the little congregation to
sing, when the Anglican establishment was
closed

The circulation of the sermons in the United
States is very large, for not only are separate
volumes issued, the newspapers appropriate each
weekly issue as their own, so that the general
diffusion is more widespread than can very readily
be realized. It is quite possible that the readers
are even more numerous in the United States
than they are in the United Kingdom. It will
be remembered by many that some years ago
an enterprising American undertook to telegraph
each Sunday morning sermon across the Atlantic,
in onler that the readers In more than one

Readers in the Untied States. 333

American city might read on Monday morning
what was spoken at the Metropolitan Tabernacle
00 the day before.

A letter received by Mr. Spurgeon in 1880
shows how his utterances may convey comfort
as well as instruction into the most out-of-the-
way comers of the American continent ** Several
weeks ago I lay ill, far away from London, in the
wilds of Florida," remarks the writer. **Weak
and faint-hearted, I lay pondering on the strange
providence of the Master, when one of your ser-
mons was placed in my hands. The refreshing
shower revived me and gave me fresh hope and
courage, and I rose from my sick couch to strive
still more earnestly to gain access to the hearts
of those by whom I am surrounded, and to-day, in
a small class that I have formed out here in the
wilderness, the Lord made His presence felt, and
blessed us with an awakening that I have never
seen here before, and tears of repentance were
shed by many. I am so full of joy and gratitude
to God that I felt, indeed I longed, to let yoo
know that your influence as an instrument had
even reached this place.**

Thus, the influence seems to reach to the very
ends of the earth, and the personal testimony of
one friend is frequently outdone by that of
another. Thus, in 1881, a pastor in Tennessee

934 ^^ Preachet^s Reward.

made this confession : ** Nine years ago I was
a wild young man, but I was converted through
reading one of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons, and I am
now the minister of a large and influential church.
The Lord's name be magnified t "

The tidings which come from the Far West
are no less cheering. Writing to Mr. Spurgeon in
1882, a correspondent in Minnesota said : — *^ You
will be pleased to hear that in this Western
country, and in this village of six hundred inhabi-
tants, Mr. Spurgeon's books are much valued. I
have seen them in several houses here. In the
Wesleyan minister's a volume or two of sermons.
In another house Morning By Morning. In
another, that of an old saint, The Saint and His
Saviour^ which he esteems as very precious, saying,
with emphatic tone, when he speaks of it, * This is
Mr. Spurgeon's first book, and he has written
many since, but never one to surpass this,' though
the dear old man has not read a tithe of Mr.
Spurgeon's publications.**

In 1884, the editor of a paper published in
New York, in which Mr. Spurgeon's sermons are
tega\^x\y issued, sent word to England that he
had recently heard of several remarkable cases in
which desperately wicked characters had abandoned
their ways through reading the Pastor's discourses
Particular reference is made to an exceptionally

Mr. Spurgeon and President GarJUld. 335

wicked character: ''One aged reprobatei sixty
years old, died last week, whose last two years
were in startling contrast to all his past life.
The transformation was the wonder of the neigh-
bourhood for its completeness. From being a
public terror he became a public blessing, as gentle
and as kind as a woman. He was delivered from
drunkenness^ profanity, unchastity, and blood-
shedding.'' On his death-bed this man desired
that Mr. Spurgeon might be told of the grateful
change which his sermons had been instrumental
in effecting.

In 1882 the widow of the murdered President
Garfield wrote to Mr. Spurgeon i** It is a choice
treasure from my storehouse of beautiful memories
that I sat beside General Garfield in the Metro-
politan Tabernacle one bright summer Sunday
morning (August 4th, 1867), and listened to your
voice. I have this morning re-read from his
journal the account of that day. A sentence from
it may interest you. After describing very fully
his impressions of the great audience, of the
preacher, and of the sermon, he closes thus : —
' God bless Spurgeon t He is helping to work
out the problem of religious and civil freedom for
England in a way that he knows not of.'**

In 1880 a young Scotchman, who died of
an incurable disease in the General Hospital at

236 TAe PteacAer^s Reward.

Montrealt gave a fine testimony to the influence
of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons; and a Christian
friend who visited him in his last illness sent an
account of the case to one of the journals of the
city : — ^ The one and only matter of his reading,
next to the Bible, was Charles H. Spuigeon's
sermons : of these he never tired. Biographies
of eminent Scotchmen like Norman Macleod and
William Amot were taken to him, but as he put
them aside he would say, ^ Spurgeon is always
the same, but always satisfying, for he makes
you forget himself, as he holds up Him who
is fairer than the children of men.'** The
preacher's works find ready acceptance in Canada,
where the Pastors' College has a separate Asso-
ciation.

To come back to the Continent of Europe, we
find that the sermons even have readers among
the fishermen of the Mediterranean. A lady tells
of an adventure which happened in 1883, and
which shows in what sense this is true. While
staying at Cette, on the French coast, she went
out with a party in a boat on the sea, but in
consequence of an adverse gale the craft would
have been driven out until their lives would have
been endangered had not an Italian fisherman in
a sailing-boat gone to the rescue. Subsequently,
the fisherman called at the hotel accompanied

The Sermons in Svsitzerland. 237

by his ancle; and the latter explained that,
although they were Roman Catholics, he had the
New Testament in French and English as well as
in his own language — and he was a reader of
Mr. Spurgeon*s sermons.

Many of the so-called Reformed Churches in
Switzerland need a second reformation, and this
might well be brought about by a wider diffusion
of Mn Spurgeon's works among the people. In
1 88 1, a young lady who applied for baptism to
a Baptist minister in England gave a brief account
of her history, and showed that she was a repre-
sentative example of the wants of the country.
Here is her testimony : — ^ My parents were
members of the Protestant Established Church in
Switzerland ; but though I attended the ordinan-
cies, and observed the ceremonies, I always felt
that I was a hypocrite, for I never believed in
them, but desired something which I could never
get in the Church. When I came to England I
read a sermon by Mr. Spurgeon which did me
good John Ploughmatis TaU^ though funny, was
made a great blessing to me. I then bought his
sermons, and read them, and I am now happy to
say that I am trusting in Jesus. When I return
home I shall distribute these sermons, which have
been so blessed to me.*' Thus the reading of
the discourses tends to the multiplication of dis«

2$S The Preacket^s Reward.

tributors. to that the good influence never ceases
to extend.

Perhaps, on the whole, the Gospel is preached
more fully in Denmark than in the once favoured
and beautiful land where the Reformation found a
refuge ; but even in the picturesque and out-of-
the-way comers of Northern Europe Mr. Spurgeon's
sermons, translated into the vernacular, are doing
good service. By way of illustration take this
characteristic note which a worthy Dane sent to
the preacher in 1880 : — ^ Through twelve of your
sermons, which are translated into Danish, I and
my household have this winter been acquainted with
your Christian announcement, and we thank you
for every clearing and edifying word. We seceded
from the Established Church a year ago, because
we have so evidently seen the tragical conse-
quences of the connection between the Church and
the State, and we could not possibly act contrary
to the conviction forced upon us by the New
Testament, viz^ the incorrectness of the infant
baptism.* The denomination which Mr. Spurgeon
represents has obtained a very respectable foot-
ing in Denmark ; for although the population is
under two millions, who for the most part are
Lutherans, the Baptists are able to muster be-
tween three and four thousand members.

The vast empire of Russia, needing tho

In the Interior of Russia. 239

Scriptures in a great number of languages, is no
small world in itsel£ Early in this century, when
the Bible Society began its great mission, the
pious Emperor Alexander was a leading patron of
the work ; and although religion was checked in
its progress during the ascendency of Nicolas,
there has since been a revival of activity, the
circulation of Mr. Spui^eon's sermons being also
one of the signs of the times. Writing in 1881
to Mr. Spurgeon, a minister stationed at St
Petersburg says : ^ By your sermons, etc, you are
having a part in the great work of spreading
Christ's kingdom both in St Petersburg and in
the interior. You are well known among the
priests, who seem to get hold of your translated
sermons, and, strange to say, I know cases in
which the Censor has readily given consent for
your works to be translated when he has been
reluctant respecting many." Another friend in
the Russian capital made it his business to cir-
culate as many of the translated copies as he
could procure, the priests apparently being the
most eager recipients.

Another friend in Russia, who wrote in 1880,
says : ^ I came to this country about twenty-four
years ago, and have been about in various parts of
the interior ever since. . • I have a wife and eight
children. A few weeks ago I explained to them

240 Tke Preachef^s Reward.

the meaning of the Orphanage, and appealed to
their feelings ; the result was that I was authorised
to go to their savings-bank and take out three
roubles forty kopecks as the children's contribution.
We have now made up the sum to fifty-five
roubles, which will be forwarded to you from St
Petersburg by a cheque.**

In the more remote parts of the Czar^s vast
empire Mr. Spui^eon's works are not only known,
but are promoting the spiritual enlightenment of
the people in a way no less striking than gratify-
ing. Writing to the Pastor from Warschaw in
1882, Mr. F. H. Newton, of the German Baptist
Mission, thus refers to his adventures : ** I have
during the last few weeks been visiting a number
of our Baptist Churches in Silesia and Russian
Poland ; and I think you will be interested to hear
of their activity and Christian faith. In almost
every town and village one of the first enquiries
put to me is. And haw is Brother Spurgeon ?
In many of the outlying stations, where no stated
missionary can be sustained, your printed sermons
are regularly made use of: and I am sure you
will be thankful to our one Master to learn that
here in Poland, and elsewhere, many of the Church
members attribute their first religious awakening
to hearing some of those sermons read. In the
meetings which I have conducted in various towns

Readers in Labrador. 241

during this tour, I have frequently taken the
opportunity of referring to the work of Grod which
you are carrying on in London and elsewhere ;
and I have thought it only right to tell you of the
warm and frequent salutations that are entrusted
to me for yourself from our poor and out-of-
the-way Baptist brethren in these parts. They
especially rejoice to learn that your sons are also
preaching the Word, and are particularly inter-
ested in the Book Fund established by Frau
Spurgeon*

Labrador is an interesting country, not only on
account of its brief charming summers and terrible
winters. The people are mainly Roman Catholics,
one reason being that a mission of that sect
is maintstined in the country. In 1884 a New
York paper contained this piece of intelligence:
— ^"All last winter, in the little mission on the
Labrador coast, Mr. Spurgeon's sermons were read
in the Mission Church, Sunday by Sunday, by the
lady teachers, who were left by themselves for
eight months, through the failing health of the
devoted missionary who laboured there for many
years. These simple services on the Sunday and
weekday evenings, when these sermons were the
staple of the teaching given, were greatly blessed
by God. Many sailors came from the ships
anchored off the coast, and, with the resident

24^ ^ ^^ Preacher^ s Reward.

fishermen, eagerly listened to the Word of Life,
and not only were their hearts cheered and
comforted, but some were brought to a knowledge
of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.**

One distributor of the sermons among the
natives of the Falkland Islands found that they
were very thankfully received; and in 1880 a
somewhat remarkable letter was received from a
Red Kaffir, who resided at Port Elizabeth, South
Africa. Being full of joy and peace, the man
explained how the transformation had been
effected : ''One day as I was going to my daily
work I met a friend of mine in the street. We
spoke about the Word of God, and he asked me
whether I had ever seen one of Mr. Spurgeon's
books. I said, ^ What Mr. Spurgeon is that — one
of the Independent ministers in London ? ' and I
said, ' No, I never saw such a book in my life.'
He said he bought it from the bookseller. I
asked the name of the book, and he said it was
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit^ and I went
straight to the shop, and bought one. I have
read a good bit of it • • • I am sure I can't tell
how to describe the goodness you have done to
us, the black people of South Africa. We are
not black only outside, even inside ; I wouldn't
mind to be a black man only in colour. It is a
terrible thing to be a black man from the soul

An Encouraging Relic. 243

to the skin ; but still I am very glad to say youi
sermons have done something good to me."

Two missionaries labouring in Greece once
testified to Mr. Spurgeon ; " Your sermons are to
us like rain upon a dry land. We have no
church to attend, and no friends to associate
with.** Similar testimony in regard to the great
assistance received from the printed sermons
comes from South Australia. In 1881 Pastor
Thomas Spurgeon, of Auckland, enclosed a piece
of The Melbourne Argus^ which contained the
sermon No. 735 — "Loving Advice for Anxious
Seekers/* with this explanation, addressed to his
mother : *' This scrap of newspaper has been
given to me by a town missionary here, who
regards it as a very precious relic It came to
him from a man who died in the hospital, and
bequeathed it to his visitor as a great treasure.
The man found it on the floor of a hut in
Australia, and was brought by its perusal to a
knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. He
kept it carefully while he lived (for it was dis-
coloured and torn when he found it), and on his
death-bed he gave it to the missionary as the
only treasure he had to leave behind him. I
thought dear father might like to have it in his
book ; if not, send it back to me, that I may
return it to its owner, who says he often feels

344 ^^ Preachet^s Reward.

encouraged by glancing at it. It was his desire^
however, that I should send it home, that the
dear preacher might be encouraged.'*

There was a certain Christian gentleman who
had some of the sermons inserted in the Aus-
tralian newspapers, himself paying the heavy cost
The above may have been one of these insertions.
Another instance was that of a shepherd, who
read a sermon in one of the journals while look-
ing after his sheep, and the truth reached his
heart. After his conversion he asked a clergy-
man, who was holding services at a gold-field,
to give him Christian work ; and after beginning
as a Sunday-school teacher, he went on till he
became himself a preacher to gold-diggers«

As it is on the mainland, so is it in the islands
of the Australasian world. The wife of a pastor
in Tasmania once said, in a letter to her father :
•* If Mr. Spurgeon knew how his sermons are
appreciated in our southern forests, where no
preachers have been for years until my dear
husband went to them, and how many cases of
conversion he met with through the reading of
them, he would be amazed, and rejoice with un-
•peakable joy."

The sermons are also read in India, many
educated natives, including even some Brahmans,
finding great pleasure in the perusal Having

A Brahman on ** Dr. Spurgeon'^ 245

had presented to him No. 1500 of The Metro-
politan Tabernacle Pulpit^ a Brahman B.A. of
Madras University wrote this critique on the
discourse, and sent it to a friend : " The few
minutes I have been reading these sermons daily
were spent very agreeably. I always considered
Dr. Spurgeon the best orator. I see even the
best can improve ; as Dr. Spurgeon excels all
orators, so his 1500th sermon excels all his other
sermons. I doubt very much whether he himself
can deliver such another sermon, but that is
going too far. I envy those that hear personally
Dr. Spurgeon preach."

In another instance a Christian lady lent a
volume of the sermons to a Mahometan, and
some time after was rewarded by receiving the
following note : " Your sermon book has, indeed,
converted me to Christianity. I do believe in
Christ our Lord, and so long as my belief in Him
is firmly rooted, I do not care what I may be
called in the outer world. Mr. Spurgeon appears
to be an extraordinary man." No one who
properly apprehends the situation can doubt that,
in proportion as the Gospel extends in our vast
Indian empire, the circulation of these sermons
will also extend.

The sermons are also found on the sea ; and
many during a season of enforced leisure find in

246 Tks Preachen^s Reward.

them the truth that reaches the heart Not very
long ago Mr. A. G. Brown told his people this
story of a conversion through reading while on
the ocean >^

''There came to me here one day a grand*
looking fellow. I had not to ask whether he
did business on the water, for the sea-breeze had
kissed his brow so often that it had left its mark
there. I said, 'Where did you find the Lord?'
In a moment he answered, ^Latitude 25, Longi-
tude 5V I confess that rather puzzled me. I
had heard of people finding Jesus Christ in these
galleries, and down these aisles, and in all sorts
of places, but here was something quite different
'Latitude 25, Longitude 54 1 What do you
mean ? ' He said, ' I was sitting on deck, and
out of a bundle of papers before me I pulled one
of Spurgeon's sermons. I began to read it As
I read it I saw the truth, and I received Jesus
in my heart I jumped off the coil of ropes
saved. I thought if I were on shore I would
know where I was saved, and why should I not
know on the sea ? And so I took my latitude
and longitude.'*

The sermons thus reach all classes; and not
only are they instrumental in the conversion of
sinners, large numbers of Christian people are
by their perusal built up in the faith. « The

A Striking Testimony. 247

audience addressed week by week is truly a
world-wide one.

At the outset of his career In London, and
while preaching at New Park Street Chapel on
October ^th, 1855, M^« Spurgeon himself referred
to the extended influence he was even then
beginning to exercise on the world through the
press, r^. ^—

''Oh to think that we may write and print
books which shall reach poor sinners' hearts!
The other day my soul was gladdened exceed-
ingly by an invitation from a pious woman to
go and see her. She told me she had been ten
years on her bed, and had not been able to stir
from it 'Nine years,' she said, 'I was dark,
and blind, and unthinking ; but my husband
brought me one of your sermons. I read it,
and God blessed it to the opening of my eyes.
He converted my soul with it And now— all
glory to Him — I love His name I Each Sabbath
morning,' she said, 'I wait for your sermon.
I live on it all the week, as marrow and fatness
to my spirit' Ah I thought I, there is some-
thing to cheer the printers^ and all of as who
labour in that good work. One good brother
wrote to me this week, ' Brother Spurgeon, keep
your courage up. You are known in multitudes of
households of England, and you are loved too;

248 TJie Preachef^s Reward.

though we cannot hear you, or see your living
form, yet throughout our villages your sermons
are scattered. And I know of cases of conversion
from them, more than I can tell you.' Another
friend mentioned to me an instance of a clergy-
man of the Church of England, a canon of a
Cathedral, who frequently preaches the sermons
on the Sabbath — whether in the Cathedral or
not I cannot say, but I hope he does. Oh 1 who
can tell when these things are printed what
hearts they may reach, what good they may
effect ? Words that I spoke three weeks ago
eyes are now perusing, while tears are gushing
from them as they read t Glory be to God most
high I "

The sermons have become one of the institu-
tions of the church in both the Old and the New
World. What should also be universally known
is, that the preacher has virtually ministered to
his church and congregation for nothing ; that
is to say, the income received has all been given
away in furtherance of the Lord's work in many
departments

MP. SPURGBON'S BOOKS

**II BMy b« added that though the oonunents weie the work of af
heelth, the rest of the volume is the product of my sickness. When
piotimcted flliiess and weakness laid me aside from daily preaching, I
fesorted to my pen as an available means of doing good. I would have
pwached had I been able, but as my Master denied me the privilege of
thua serving Him, I gladly availed myself of the other method of bearing
iMtimony for His name."— T^Af Treasury rf David, Pre/act to Vol, /.

**1 prepared these figures and meuphors that they may serve as
finikin far arrows^ arrows of Gospel truth which I pray may be made
ibaip in the hearts of the King's enemies.** — Feathers for Arrows*

"1 have somewhat indulged the mirthful vein, but ever with lo
ferious a purpose that 1 ask no forgiveness. Those who see a virtua
ia dohicsi have full permission to oondemot far « sufficient number
litk ■ppiOiiii'*-n/<Mlii Piosigkmmm*i Fkttttm^

IX.
MR. SPURGEOirS BOOKS.

SOON after he came to London Mr. Spurgeon
appeared before the world as an author ; and
each successive year has so added to his works
in this department that, inclusive of the magazine,
nearly a hundred volumes have been sent out If
the reader will accept the paradox, Mr. Spurgeon
has never written sermons, although during twenty
years his sermons have been to him an exercise
in writing. In one of those autobiographical
articles with which he sometimes enriches the
pages of The Sward and the Trowel^ he says:
''The earlier sermons, owing to my constant
wanderings abroad, received scarcely any revision,
and consequently they abound in colloquialisms
and other offences, very venial in extempore dis-
course* but scarcely tolerable in print ; the latter
specimens are more carefully corrected, and the
work of revision has been a very useful exercise
to me, supplying, in great measure, that training
in correct language which is obtained by those

252 Mr. Spurgeofis Books.

who write their productions before they deliver
them. The labour has been far greater than
some suppose, and has usually occupied the best
hours of Monday, and involved the burning of no
inconsiderable portion of midnight oiL Feeling
that I had a constituency well deserving my best
efforts^ I have never grudged the hours, though
often the brain has been wearied, and the pleasure
has hardened into a task.**

After reading the above explanation we well
understand how tongue and pen have worked
together to redound to the advantage of both.
As a young man Mr. Spurgeon did not enters
tain very enlarged views concerning the dignity
of liuthorship, and his expectations in regard
to the profits of a writer were of a very modest
kind. He commenced by committing a mistake
for which he paid dear. The copyright of The
Saint and His Saviour which would have been
cheap at ;^ 1,000, was sold for a twentieth part
of that sum ; and the small honorarium was never
supplemented by the fortunate publishers. That
mistake has not been repeated ; and his literary
works have, since that day, been sufficiently varied
and numerous to represent the fruits of a busy
literary life quite apart from the regular issue of
the sermons. Hence it appears that a pheno-
menon is now seen in the printing and publishing

A Hard' Working Author. .153

world which it would be hard to parallel— exten-
sive printing works in one part of the city, and
a publishing house in another quarter, are in the
main supplied with grist from the study of one
man, and that man a Baptist minister, preaching
what many call " narrow theology." Yet they
who class the sermons among " narrow " produc-
tions will not forget that they are sown over a
broader field than is the case with the discourses
of any other preacher.

Though Mr. Spurgeon Is continually suffering
from the effects of over-work, the public is still
exacting in its demands ; and to judge by the
editions issued, readers eagerly welcome each
successive offspring of the author's diligent appli-
cation. Though John Ploughman is the Pastor's
most popular character. The Treasury of David
is his magnum opus. In the first he writes like
one who can do taskwork well ; amid the green
pastures and quiet waters of the Psalms he
explores a congenial land where every advance
reveals new beauties, and where labour yields a
sweet reward.

The Treasury of David^ just completed In
seven octavo volumes, has the virtue of being the
production of a writer who has been in love with
the Psalms from his youth ; and, indeed, this
enthusiasm for the subject was necessary, for tha

254 ^^* Spurgeoris Books.

work has been only completed after more than
twenty years of arduous labour. The exposition
bespeaks its author throughout ; it abounds in
that epigrammatic wisdom which is a sure mark
of original genius. Commentaries of olden timee
— Manton's *• long-metre edition of Psalm cxix."
being a well-knovm example — rather alarmed than
attracted inquisitive readers ; but after tasting
of Mr. Spurgeon's fare, a self-indulgent literary
epicure might desire to come again. The book,
with its ample store of illustrations, gathered from
the entire field of literature, ought to have enter-
tained Dr. Johnson on a journey even better than
Cocker's Arithmetic. While it is a rich storehouse
for the use of professional men, another, seeking
relaxation from the wear and tear of commerce,
might make the book a companion on a summer
holiday. What is it but the triumph of genius
when studies, hitherto supposed to be only
suitable for ministers and collegians, are made
attractive to general readers?

Here and there a metrical version of a favourite
psalm is inserted to make an agreeable variation.
In another place scientific infidels are described
as men who ** will not touch Him [Christ] with
the finger of faith ; but they will pluck at Him with
the finger of malice." Sentences which would
serve as proverbs might be plentifully gathered.

The Treasury of David:' 255

It is also interesting to take note of the skill with
which the illustrations are selected. Take the
following on the opening verse of Psalm
xcviii. :—

'^A clergyman in the county of Tyrone had
for some weeks observed a little ragged boy come
every Sunday and place himself in the centre of
the aisle, directly opposite the pulpit, where he
seemed exceedingly attentive to the services. He
was desirous of knowing who the child was, and
for this purpose hastened out after the sermon
several times, but never could see him, as he
vanished the moment service was over, and no one
knew whence he came or anything about him. At
length the boy was missed from his usual situation
in the church for some weeks. At this time a
man called on the minister, and told him a
person very ill was desirous of seeing him ; but
added, * I am really ashamed to ask you to go so
far ; but it is a child of mine, and he refuses to
have any one but you. He is altogether an
extraordinary boy, and talks a great deal about
things that I do not understand/ The clergyman
promised to go, and went, though the rain poured
down in torrents, and he had six miles of rugged
mountain country to pass. On arriving where he
was directed, he saw a most wretched cabin indeed,
and the man he had seen in the morning was

256 Mr. ^mrgeofis Books.

waiting at the door. He was shown in, and
found the inside of the hovel as miserable as the
outside. In a corner, on a little straw, he beheld
a person stretched out, whom he recognised as
the little boy who had so regularly attended his
church* As he approached the wretched bed the
child raised himself up, and stretching forth his
arms said, ^ His own right hand and His holy arm
hath gotten Him th$ victory^ and immediately he
expired.**

The work on the Psalms entailed enormous
labour, not merely as a commentary, but on
account of the vast array of illustrative passages
which have been gathered from the great field of
the world's literature ; and it must at least be a
great consolation to Mr. Spurgeon and his assist-
ants to see how thoroughly their work has been
appreciated by the public At the time of
writing, about 107,000 volumes have been sent out,
and this is of course a number far beyond the
circulation that any commentary on a single book
of the Bible has ever before commanded.

To persevere in a task through more than
twenty years, when the labour increases in difficulty
as it proceeds, is an example of industry not
often encountered ; but this is what Mr. Spurgeon
has done while completing his Treasury of
David. The ancient classics of Greece and Italy

A Many-sided Genitu. 257

have been read for any dust of gold they might
contain ; so also have the Christian Fathers, the
English classics, and others, to mention the names
of which would only tend to the bewilderment of
the unlearned reader.

But Mr. Spurgeon is more than a commentator,
he is a many-sided genius, — ^that is, he can work
to advantage in various departments, and excel
in all. In The Treasury of David he is the ripe
theologian ; in the character of John Plough-
man he talks philosophy such as the common
people like to hear because they can understand ;
in his History of the Tabernacle he is a pains-
taking historian ; in Lectures to My Students
he is a more lively college professor than any
other member of that honourable fraternity with
whom I am acquainted. It is worth a substantial
entrance fee to listen to one of these Friday
afternoon orations; but those who cannot hear
should read the book.

In old times, when books were scarce, and good
teachers scarcer, a clever University lecturer would
attract auditors from foreign climes, who in after
life were wont to boast of early privileges. It is
leally surprising to think how the old schoolmen
killed time, and wasted their energies in battling
about barren topics, or in establishing their finely-
spun theories. The popular mediaeval professor.

258 Mr. Sturgeon's Books.

with his host of determined disciples, was hardly
ft less formidable opponent than we should now
find in m confident general who knew that
r^ments of veterans were ready to give effect
to his orders. The shock of controversy often
troubled the outside world ; but whether the
Realists or the Idealists held the field mattered
little to the vulgar crowd. Was it ever authori-
tatively decided whether a thousand angels could,
or could not dance upon the point of a finely-
sharpened needle ? Philosophy was a dead letter,
because men worshipped intellect and learning for
their own sake, without caring anything about the
elevation of the benighted population. Students
spent their strength for nought, losing their way
in the mazes of casuistry, until nothing short of
the mighty awakening of the Reformation sufficed
to break their fatal dream.

Had Mr. Spurgeon flourished in mediaeval days
he would have been renowned as a man of valour,
the Achilles of a school, and even now he Is
scarcely less than this. No college professor ever
before gave lectures precisely similar to '* Lectures
to My Students." The book is weighty and
piquant, serious as well as sparkling ; many of its
philosophical saws gain force from their settings
of humour. In every sense it is a popular reading-
book ; one not too light for grave scholars, nor of

Tk$ Colleg€ Lictures. 259

that solid dryness which repels those who read for
amusement Every page is racy, the wit is free
from ill-nature, and throughout there is a cha-
racteristic striving after practical results. Pretty
things are never said for their own sake; the
smallest apophthegm is aimed at a high mark
which is seldom missed. As college homilies
these lectures were not delivered with that pro
fessional frown which might seem to give weight
to their matter and dignity to the lecturer ; they
were rather spoken with easy grace, and as we
read we seem to be looking on a beaming coun-
tenance which of itself may teach what is worth
even more than a college lesson. ** Our reverend
tutor, Mr. Rogers, compares my Friday work to
the sharpening of the pin/' we are told ; ** the
fashioning of the head, the straightening, the
laying on of the metal, and the polishing, have
been done during the week, and then the process
concludes with an effort to give point and sharp-
ness. To succeed In this the lecturer must not
be dull himself, nor demand any great effort from
his audience. I am as much at home with my
young brethren as in the bosom of my family,
and, therefore, speak without restraint**

Mr. Spurgeon lets his readers know who the
young aspirants are that constitute the Pastors
College, and also who they are not. To those who

26o Mr. Spurgeofis Books.

— — — — ^— ■^»^— — — — — 1^— I^M I II I ■— — ^1— — J>— ■

assert that he has set ap a clerical factoiy, he
replies that he is rather a ^ parson killer.** He is
ever doing work similar to *' the duty which fell
to the lot of Cromweirs Triers." He does not
want men who are striving to do the best they
can for themselves in this world, and applications
are declined which come from those whose ^ main
object is an ambitious desire to shine among men.**
Self-conceited geniuses are always kindly directed
elsewhere. Nor is it believed that the students
are generally characterised by "great feebleness
of mind/' because applicants betraying a mental
weakness which is likely to be carried away by any
kind of doctrine are counselled to ''keep in the
rear ranks/' in company with other knights of ** the
kid-gloved order." Another too numerous class,
who are not welcomed into the College, are ^ dis-
tinguished by enormous vehemence and zeal, and
a conspicuous absence of brains ; brethren who
would talk for ever and ever upon nothing, who
would stamp and thump the Bible, and get
nothing out of it at all ; earnest, awfully earnest,
mountains in labour of the most painful kind;
but nothing comes of it all, not even the ridi^
cuius mus. There are zealots abroad who are not
capable of conceiving or uttering five consecutive
thoughts, whose capacity is most narrow, and their
conceit most broad ; and these can hammer, and

Eutntric Students. 261

bawl, and rave, and tear, and rage, but the noise all
arises from the hollowness of the drum.'' Of others
the name is legion, whose natural defects would
render them ludicrous in the eyes of a congre-
gation. One applicant "had a sort of rotary
action of the jaw/' says Mr. Spurgeon. ^ I could
not have looked at him while preaching without
laughter, if all the gold of Tarshish had been my
reward." Men who base their "call" on a hedged-
up way are not encouraged, because " a man who
would succeed as a preacher would probably do
right well either as a grocer, or a lawyer, or any-
thing else. A really valuable minister would have
excelled at anything." Mr. Self-conceit cannot
always see reason when his offer of self-sacrifice
is declined. " Do you mean to say that because
I have an unusual genius," asked one, in warm
indignation, "and have produced in myself a
gigantic mind, such as is rarely seen, I am refused
admittance into your College?"

Perhaps no volume sold for half-a-crown ever
cost an author more trouble than Commenting
and Commentaries. The student is directed to
nearly fifteen hundred works, treating of separate
parts of the Bible, or of the whole book. Like
Lord Bacon, Mr. Spurgeon must see fruit come of
his labour, or he is not satisfied. Such books are
not written for money, nor for fame, for the

262 Mr. Spurgeofis Books.

sake of aiding those who have little money to
spend in literature ; e.g. >— *

^ Here, however, is the difficulty ; students do
not find it easy to choose which works to buy,
and their slender stores are often wasted on books
of a comparatively worthless kind. If I can save
a poor man from spending his money for that
which is not bread, or, by directing a brother to a
good book, may enable him to dig deeper into the
mines of truth, I shall be well repaid. For this
purpose I have toiled, and read much, and passed
under review some three or four thousand volumes.
From these I have compiled my catalogue, reject-
ing many, yet making a very varied selection.
Though I have carefully used such judgment as
I possess, I have, doubtless, made many errors ; I
shall, certainly, find very few who will agree with
me in all my criticisms, and some persons may be
angry with my remarks. • • . He who finds
fault will do well to execute the work in a better
style ; only let him remember that he will have
my heifer to plough with, and therefore ought, in
all reason, to excel me."

It is taken for granted that persons who pur-
chase the book value the assistance of Biblical
expositors. *'0f course you are not such wise-
acres as to think you can expound Scripture
without assistance from the works of divines and

On Cammentariis. 263

learned men, who have laboured before you in the
field of exposition/' the students are told. ^If
you are of that opinion, pray remain so, for you
are not worth the trouble of conversion, and, like
a little coterie who think with you, would resent
the attempt as an insult to your infallibility.** His
opinions on the leading commentators are not
those of a man who has not taken the trouble to
read their works for himsel£

^ First among the mighty for general usefnlness,
we are bound to mention the man whose name
is a household word, Matthew Henry. He is
most pious and pithy, sound and sensible, sug-
gestive and sober, terse and trustworthy. You
will find him to be glittering with metaphors, rich
in analogies, overflowing with illustrations, super-
abundant in reflections. . • • It is the poor
man's commentary, the old Christian's companioOi
suitable to everybody, instructive to all • • •
Every minister ought to read Matthew Heniy
entirely and carefully through once at least I
should recommend )^u to get through it in the
next twelve months after you leave college. B^n
at the beginning, and resolve that you will traverse
the goodly land from Dan to Beersheba. You
will acquire a vast store of sermons if you read
with your note-book close* at hand ; and as for
thoughts, they will swarm around you like twitter-

264 Mr. Spurgeofis Books.

ing swallows around an old gable towards the
close of autumn.''

John Calvin is ** a prince among men.**
Matthew Poole ^' is a very prudent and judicious
commentator." Trapp is recommended *• to men
of discernment" Gill is a ''master cinder-sifter
among the Targums, the Talmuds, the Mbhna,
and the Gemara. . • • I have placed next to
Gill in my library Adam Clarke; but as I have no
desire to have my rest broken by wars among the
authors, I have placed Doddridge between them.
If the spirits of the two worthies could descend
to the earth in the same mood in which they
departed, no house would be able to hold them."
He goes on to say that the first money received
for services in London was exchanged for Scott's
Commentary ; but ^ for a minister's use Scott is
mere milk-and-water."

The Metropolitan Tabernacle and Its Work
would have been a work of more surpassing
interest had the author done what he thinks he
could not be expected to do — had he turned his
" pages into an autobiography." Mr. Spurgeon
will not, however, portray himselfl He prefers to
see himself as others see him.

John PloughmatCs Talk and Pictures are Mr.
Spurgeon's most popular books, if we judge of
popularity by the fact that 450,000 copies of the

Popular Works. 165

two volumes have been sold. Then come Morn-
ing by Morning and Evening by Evenings the
circulation of the one having reached 100^000,
and the other 7S,ooo« Featfiers for Arrows
and Illustrations and Meditations are illustrative
manuals. Flashes of Thought^ Spurgeotis Gems^
and Gleanings Among the Sheaves are choice
passages selected by other hands from an ample
field. Types and Emblems^ Trumpet Calls to
Christian Energy^ The Present Truths Storm
Signals^ and Farm Sermons are supplementary
volumes of discourses printed in crown octavo-
form. There are several others I have not
mentioned which command wide popularity. The
shilling series extends to eleven volumes. All of
Grace shows the plan of salvation ; while The Clue
of the Maze is an antidote to the specious unbelief
of the times. Nor ought The Interpreter ; or^
Scripture for Family Worship^ with its running
comments and hymns, to be overlooked. As a
handsome quarto volume, this book is frequently
purchased for a wedding present

The Pastor's printed books, including The
Sword and the Trowel^ thus comprise nearly one
hundred volumes ; and form in themselves such
a comprehensive library as was never before pro-
vided by one man.

In the meantime, the work of translating the

266 Mr. Spurgeatis Books.

Pkstor's works into European and even Oriental
languages still goes on. Mr. Spurgeon's own
portion of Th$ Treasury of David is now being
rendered into Arabic, while AU of Grass is being
rendered into German.

TBM mooK rtam.

** Th0 loom it nBall, and vcfy poorif famished, a tiny ire bmni Ib

the gimte^ for It it mid-winter ; bat bejond thii» there b an aboenoe of

an the toitable tonoundingt of a minister't ttudy, and joa can ooant

the JiflpJtf upon your fingera. The pastor tits there with bowed bead,

and weaiy body, after a day of heavy work, and, shall I tdl H? of

very acanty tustenance. A deep tense of responsibility it apoQ bim,

and he feels the weight of souls on his heart ; but in addition to this^

tpedal caret Jost now press upon him heavily ; troubles of drardi and

bailding matters, questions as to ways and means, fightings without,

and fean within, which vex and grieve him sorely. • • • Weary and

fidnt, ki it vny, virffoar, and almost overwhelmed fay the diflJaiMet

of the way, he tumt to the fire with hit open Bible on hit knee and

tight. Oh 1 tuch a sigh. >\111 the angds hear It, I wonder, and coma

and minister to him, as they used to do to their sorrowful Lord ?

Perhaps to^ but hit Heavenly Father bat alto prepared an earthly

aolace, and the answer to his ay b even now at the door. The bell

rings, and a huge parcel b left ' For the Pastor,' and b taken at onoe

to hb room. In a moment he knows that relief bat come, he knowt

the tuperscription, and divinet the contentt; in hb joy he almost

caresaet the package ; then, with trembling fingers, he cuts the string,

and spreads the treasures oat before the Lord. Yes, literally ' before

the Lord,* for now you see him kneeling by the side of the open parcel,

thanking and blessing God for such opportune mercy, for soch

In the desert, snch blossoming roses in the wildernesai*'«>2*«i Ki

ffm9 I4fi im ikt Service tfHu Bo^ Fuiuh 387-t.

X.
TBX BOOK FUND.

A S a benefactor of poor ministers who are
•^^ anable to buy necessary books, Mrs. Spurgeon
has won a wide reputation ; and the beneficent
work carried on is all the more remarkable because,
in past years more especially, it was accomplished
in spite of pain and weakness such as would have
disabled anyone who could not have exemplified
the heroism or endurance which sometimes seems
to be peculiar to Christian women. The book
distribution, which commenced in 1 875, was origin-
ally undertaken on a very small scale ; and at first
no one suspected that the giving away of a hundred
copies of Mr. Spurgeon's Lectures would lead to
the development of a comprehensive enterprise
which would extend its influence not only through-
out the British Isles, but also to the colonies.
In her recently published work. Ten Years of
my Life in the Service of the Book Fund^ Mrs.
Spurgeon thus explains how the enterprise origi-
nated, which, through the goodness of God, has

270 Tks Book Fund.

often proved a solace as well as a labour to the
person chiefly concerned :—

* It was in the summer of the year 1875 that
my dear husband completed and published the
first volume of his Lectuns to My Studintt.
Reading one of the proof copies, I became so
enamoured of the book that when the dear author
asked, *Well» how do you like it?' I answered
with a full hearty * I wish I could place it in
the hands of every minister in England.' * Then
why not do so ? haw much will y<m giwt* said
my very practical spouse. • . . Then comes the
wonderful part : I found the money ready and
waiting I Upstairs in a little drawer were some
carefully-hoarded crown-pieces, which, owing to
some foolish fancy, I had been gathering for years
whenever chance threw one in my way; these
I now counted out, and found they made a sum
exactly sufficient to pay for one hundred copies of
the work I If a twinge of regret at parting from
my cherished but unwieldy favourites passed
over me, it was gone in an instant, and then they
were given, freely and thankfully, to the Lord,
and In that moment, though I knew it not, the
Book Fund was inaugurated*

Since that auspicious day the general distri-
bution has not fallen very far short of 90,000
volumes, while the recipients have numbered

Its Thorough Catholicity. 171

considerably over 1 3,000 indigent pastors» who
certainly cannot purchase an adequate supply of
books if they are not freely supplied to thenu
Can we estimate the encouragement thus afforded
to men who are often wearied and cast down
through difficulties and perplexities which are
aggravated, if not actually created, by poverty ?

Very naturally, perhaps^ some persons have
supposed that the Book Fund is for Baptists
exclusively ; but writing in the early part of 1880
in her own pleasant style, Mrs. Spurgeon de-
scribed the thorough catholicity of her work :—

* A day or two since the good Earl of Shaftes-
bury paid us a visit, and on leaving he said to
me, 'Well, how does the Baptist book-giving
prosper?' * Thank you, my lord,' I replied,
' the Book Fund prospers grandly, all the more
that it is 11^/ a Baptist book-giving, but is free
to all the Lord's ministering servants.' If the
venerable Earl could have seen my day-book
he would have found full confirmation of this
assertion, for glancing down the long columns of
recipients' names, one cannot but be struck with
the constant repetition of the distinguishing titles
of Church, Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist
etc, and the comparatively infrequent recurrence
(rf the word Baptist in the list Thus, in these
first four months of the year, I have already 00

27^ The Book Fund.

my books the names of nearly four hundred
ministers, who during that period have received
grants from my Fund, and of this number just
ane-fourth are * mine own people.' I am delighted
to see that the longer record bears the names o(
fifty Church of England clergymen, and I believe I
am justified in anticipating glorious results from
the distribution among them of sound and
scriptural doctrine. And if in some cases appre-
ciation should lead to appropriation, and from
many a stately pulpit in the land the Gospel
should sound forth full and free through the
sermons first delivered in the Metropolitan
Tabernacle, shall aught but joy and thankfulness
fill our hearts ? ' I confess,' wrote a vicar to me,
'that though I do not preach your husband's
sermons bodily^ I yet so assimiliate them into my
own discourses that they are of the utmost value
and blessing to me.' "

Of the general need of the work among
ministers of all denominations there can hardly
be two opinions. I was privileged to assist in
the preparation of the first annual Report of
the Fund for 1 876, and I then described the need
of the enterprise in these words : —

^ The position of Nonconformist pastors in
sparsely inhabited country districts is extremely
difficulti and ought to command the sympathy

Pitiful Examples of Poverty. 273

and help of all their brethren. On account of
their position appearances have to be studied^ and
much of their scanty means must thus be ex-
pended. Even their rustic audiences would hardly
bear to see the pastor in a smock frock and his
children barefooted.*

The above applies in general terms to the need
existing for itnore books in the studies of our
poorer pastors ; and that the case is not put too
strongly is proved by the fact that the individual
examples brought to light by Mrs. Spurgeon more
than prove what is said. Thus, for example, in
1880, three representative cases were given of the
destitution which exists in the households of three
pastors of the Baptist denomination.

^ Na L is a hard-working, painstaking pastor,
preaching five times a week, holding large Bible-
classes, writing, itinerating, and in every way
doing his best for the people of his charge ; he
is married, has three children, and accepts and
manages to exist upon a meagre pittance of
sixty-five pounds per annum, supplemented by a
new year's gift, which usually comes to about ten
or twelve pounds. . . .

^ No. II. is in a still sadder plight. For twenty
years his salary as a village pastor has never
exceeded sixty pounds per annum, and, to use his
own words, ' // has often been ten^ and sometimes

274 The Book Fund.

fifteen^ pounds below that sum! This» with a wife
afflicted for thirty years with complicated internal
maladies, seeking aid from many physicians, and
being nothing bettered but rather the worse,
added to other domestic trials, and many deaths in
the family, is enough, one would think, to crush
all preaching out of a man I * Few,' he says,
' save our Heavenly Father, know the privations
and struggles which we have endured these twenty
years.' • • •

^ No. III. stands apart upon a pinnacle of special
and exceptional sadness. • • • The husband is
weak and ill from the lingering effects of a
bronchial attack which prostrated him two years
since, a young child is in a delicate and critical
condition, the wife, though in fast-failing health
has just become the mother of their twelfth
child, all living save one, and the last five are
under five years of age I Their income from all
sources, salary, small business, and gifts from
friends included • • • fifty -five pounds a year I
Can respectable poverty know a lower depth than
this?-

The cases of poverty in one denomination are
quite in keeping with those found in another;
and we have to bear in mind that in consequence
of agricultural depression and other causes the
people are suffering as well as the pastors. Tbii%

Exceptionally Hard Times. 275

one who has to maintain a wife and children
on a little over one hundred pounds a year bears
emphatic testimony to what may now be witnessed
in the country. ** He says he never before wit-
nessed so much poverty and distress in his district ;
yet, at the same time, he speaks with holy enthu-
siasm of the trust in God and resignation to His
will manifested by the suffering people. 'It is
no easy work/ he writes, * to live in a place like
this, where one sees 'trouble* written on every
face. I could not go into the houses of my
people, and see shoeless feet and empty cupboards,
without doing something to help them. Many
must have gone to the poor-house, or have died
without medical aid, if I had not paid the cost' "
What a commentary is such action as this on the
words ^Blessed is he that considereth the poor,
the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble."
There are no helpers of the poor like those who
are poor themselves.

The strongest testimony to the value of the
work b seen in the letters of the pastors them-
selves who receive the books. In a manner that
ordinary persons can hardly understand, the
parcels of books have carried gladness into
many a beclouded home, while they have stimu«
lated many a flagging ministry.

*When I wrote for the fifth volume of Ur.

2/6 Tke Book Fund.

Spurgeon's Treasury of David^ wrote a Con*
gregational minister in i88o» ^I felt that you
would place me under an obligation of lively
gratitude by acceding to my request ; but when,
instead of onevolume» I am the fortunate recipient
of seven, and all of them of great interest and
utility, to congratulate myself and express my
thanks to jrou in a measure proportioned to your
bounty, is a task more easily undertaken than
adequately performed. • • •**

Another pastor of the same denomination,
also writing in 1880, says : ^Accept my warmest
thanks for the books, and also for the kind
thoughtfulness which arranged for their reception
on Saturday. Having been worried and worked
over-much this week, and feeling very far from
well, I was in a state of physical exhaustion and
mental depression, which by no means augured
well for to-morrow, when your parcel arrived.
The very sight of it did me good, and when I
opened it and discovered its precious contents I
cannot tell you how many degrees better I felt
at once.**

The clergy of the Establishment, including
even many of the High Church school, have
received .gifts ; and from the acknowledgments,
written in their own characteristic way, we see
something of the poverty which abounds in the

Clergymen Apply for Books. tjj

Anglican communion on the one hand, while
there is superabundant wealth on the other.

A curate in the north wrote: *I felt on the
arrival of your parcel as if I must be to an-
ministerial as to jump for joy. • • • As the
volumes lie before me on my table, my heart
is fully and words can but feebly express with
what pleasure I subscribe myself,** etc.

In 1 88 1 we find that Mrs. Spurgeon had to
entertain an exceptionally lai^e number of applica-
tions from the pastors of the Established Church ;
and the cry for books coming from that quarter
was responded to with a liberality quite in keep-
ing with the character of the Fund, but which
none the less on that account surprised the
recipients. ** In some cases it may be quite pos-
sible that the volumes are sought for the scarcely
admitted purpose of wholesale appropriation, but
what then ? ** remarks Mrs. Spurgeon. * Not-
withstanding every way, whether in pretence or
in truth, Christ is preached, and we therein do
rejoice, and will rejoice. How many a young
curate, with small ability but gracious spirit,
might serve his Master well, and feed the flock
of God with more convenient food, were he to
cast aside his own manuscript, and preach boldly
and bodily a sermon from the Tabernacle Pulpit
I am told this is very often done, and I can but

378 7%e Book Fund.

say. May God bless the doing of it" As regards
the business of appropriation, we find that one
parish ** supply " preached Mr. Spurgeon's ser-
mons for nine Sabbaths in the parish church,
greatly to the delight and edification of the
parishioners. Nor did the good man adopt what
some will think to have been his singular pro-
cedure without good reason ; for he frankly
confessed, ** Mr. Spurgeon's sermons are the only
ones which can be really understood either by
myself or the congregation."

At first sight it might seem somewhat anoma-
lous when High Church and Ritualistic clergy-
men send in their applications for books ; but
Mrs. Spurgeon, nevertheless, regards the pheno-
menon with satisfaction, because, as a certain
member of the Church declared, the Baptist
Pastor's works more accurately represent the
doctrines of the Thirty-nine Articles than much
of what is preached in many of the churches.

One of the "Advanced" school in the Midlands,
who received a grant, had a vicar who had de-
nounced Baptists as " abominable Dissenters '* ;
but the great man was not above writing a recom-
mendation to the Book Fund on behalf of his
curate. *Tell Mr. Spurgeon I shall highly
value his Treasury and Sermons^ and hope
to reap much benefit from his Lectures ^«

Letters from Ritualists. 279

Students * remarked the curate. *• I never write,
without a prayer for God's guidance and blessing,
and I shall study these books, looking for the
Divine enlightenment I send you a view of my
church — it holds about seven hundred people, and
to-morrow I hope to assist in five services and
preach twice.*' Another, who also confessed that
he was ''what is called a Ritualist,** said on
receiving his books, *' I shall point to this present
as an instance of kind Christian sympathy under-
lying considerable difference of religious opinions.**
He then went on to rejoice that those who really
loved their Lord had so much in common not-
withstanding outward distinctions.

Among those clergymen who have written
about their adventures with Mr. Spurgeon's ser-
mons, however, the writer of the following should
perhaps rank first in point of interest : —

•* Having heard that you kindly assist poor
ministers with books, permit me to state that I
am an ordained priest of the Church of England ;
and though prevented by age from holding any
permanent curacy, I am engaged at a stipend of
£10 per annum in two villages, and have to go
some distance on Sundays, in different directions,
for morning and evening service. On the second
Sunday in Lent this year (1881), I was reading
a text, when suddenly I remembered the Three

28o The Book Fund.

Thens (Isaiah vi. i-8), by the Rev. C H.
Spurgeon, and gave it as a morning discourse at
— — • I was afterwards asked by a district visitor
what induced me to select so singular a text, and
another hearer said she had never listened to
anything like it before^ while the majority of the
people were so pleased, that during the nine
Sundays I was there the church was full every
afternoon."*

Such are the recipients of the Fund at home ;
but in some instances the books find their way to
the Colonies and to French pastors on the Conti-
nent One of the latter in writing to Mrs. Spurgeon
said : ^ Now, more than ever, Protestant pastors
have a great work to do in France. The people
are tired of the clergy, while, on the other hand,
infidels are tiying to make way, and they boast
of their science, comparing it with the too-well-
known ignorance of the Romish priests."* Since
the Reformation won its triumphs, partly through
the evangelical books which were vended by the col*
porteurs, who can help wishing that the second
reformation, which alone can save the country
from imminent peril, may be advanced by the Book
Fund distribution ?

The words of cheer and of appreciation which
come from the Colonies are similar to those which
are so plentiful at home. " I need not say hov

Pastors in France. a8i

i^W"

the volumes will be prized and valued for their
intrinsic merit," szys one in Canada on the receipt
of a grant, ** the inspiration they will supply, the
food they will give to mind and heart, and also
for the sake of the author, who3e dear and beloved
form I see outlined before my mind's eye every
day, and whose ringing voice I fancy I can hear
across the three thousand miles of ocean« God
grant that I may be able to catch more and more
of that high-souled, consecrated enthusiasm which
breathes through his writings like the fresh breeze
of morning.'*

But although the distribution of books is the
chief thing to be undertaken by Mrs. Sputgeon,
she has extended her supplies to the wives and
children of poor Pastors by means of the Pastors'
Aid Fund. A small affair when compared with
the other and main department of the work, the Aid
Fund has still relieved a large number of the most
deserving cases of pastors, their wives and child-
ren, whose chief cross in life is extreme poverty.
Not only money, but clothes are given, so that
all the members of a family are found rejoicing
together. .

Thus, as one recipient writes : ** We are all very
pleased with the share we have in the contents of
the parcel. This is something for wife, children,
and myself, and everything is so suitable and

2S» The Book Fund.

helpful I scarcely know how I shall feel when
I get on the nice warm clothes, and my wife
says she will look as she once did, in her new
dress."

Writing of this friend in 1881 Mrs. Spurgeon
herself says: ^He has been battling this long
time with no small tempest of adversity and
sorrow.** The preacher himself added, ^I fed
the load removed which has burdened me so
long, I see my precious books saved from
dispersion, I see the faces of my wife and
children lit up with joy, I seem to hear the
congratulations of those comrades in the con-
flict who have always stood by me."

Scores of cases might be quoted to show the
need of the work, and every one is representative
of a need which is no less urgent than widespread.
Thus one pastor's wife, who is called by Mrs.
Spurgeon ^One of the bravest little women I
know," wrote in 1881: ''I have been so very
unwell all the winter, that our expenses have
been unusually heavy, and I had put nothing by
for the little boy's advent, so when he came we
had no money in the house, and having to take
our salary little by little, times being so bad
with the people, we hardly ever seem to possess

any.*

Quite in keeping with thb b the confessioo

Hanu Poverty. 283

of an Essex pastor, who about the same time
wrote : ^ We never were so straitened as now ;
my income fell off last year more than twenty-
five per cent, and I assure you we have wanted
the common necessaries of life, and I have come
to my last pair of trousers. When I put the note
into my wife's hand, she burst into tears, em-
braced me, and said, * What a mercy God has
raised up friends to be so kind and good to us t

9 n

When we ask, Who are they who help this
work ? we find that they are as cosmopolitan as
those who receive the benefit. In the early days
of the enterprbe the growth of the Fund was
supposed to keep pace with a certain lemon-tree
in the greenhouse at Clapham. It will be re-
membered how the Fund was commenced by the
surrender of certain crown pieces which had been
carefully saved ; and this example of self-sacrifice
became so contagious that on a spring day in
1 88 1 Mrs. Spurgeon wrote : ** Four crown pieces,
labelled * Silver-blossoms for the dear lemon -tree,'
were sent to-day by a beloved friend to cheer my
heart and help forward my work." Of course
the sender had a confession to make — ^"I have
had them a long time lying by ; for my dear
departed mother used to save them as a little
present for me, and I never before could part

284 ^^ Book Fund.

with them ; but when I read how you began yoof
good work, I felt I must devote them to the Lord
in the same way, and they come to you in love
and prayer.**

On June i6th, 1880, this letter arrived: "Please
find enclosed a post-office order for £2 is. 6d.^ and
a small slip of paper which will explain the use
to which the money b to be put It was directed
to be sent to you by a Christian friend of mine^

Mrs. D ^ of Greenock, and was found in a

drawer after her death. I may state that she had
a struggle to support herself by her needle, and
selling small furnishings, and was long in poor
health, but her heart was in her Master's work,
and she now receives her reward.** The slip of
paper contained a note in the widow's own hand-
writing, to the effect that all threepenny-pieces
taken in the way of business were to be ^ dedi-
cated to the Lord's work under the hand of
Mrs. Spurgeon.**

Thus, while some give of their abundance^
there are others who still give even though
poverty might well excuse their doing anything
in the way of contributing to the wants of others.
Some give money, but good books are of course
as acceptable as cash, the only drawback to
presents in kind being, that on some occasions
certain donors, with more benevolence than senses

Undesired Donations. 285

or with a nicer perception of their own conve-
nience than of the character of Mrs. Spurgeon's
needs, have sent mere lumber instead of service-
able works. Take the following episode by way
of illustration : —

••Would that my record of 'presents* ended
with those which call forth my gratitude and
admiration. Alas I I have to renew my yearly
complaint that people in mistaken kindness will
send me the rubbish they know not how else
to get rid o£ I remember saying • • • that I had
received nearly every sort of inappropriate and
unsuitable volume except a ' Cookery Book/ and
I congratulated myself that such an indignity had
not yet befallen my Fund. But I have now been
brought to that * lowest depth ; ' for in one of
the unwelcome parceb forwarded to me lately
there are two musty old tomes which bear the
title of ' The Complete Housewife^ and Accomplished
Gentlewomatis Companion^ being a Collection ol
upwards of seven hundred of the most approved
receipts for Cookery, and above three hundred
receipts of Medicine. London 1 766! After this,
I thought I might have borne anything ; but
to-day has brought me a still sharper experience,
and I feel constrained to exclaim against the
cruel kindness of people who thus so thought-
lessly trouble and burden me. I had received an

286 Tke Book Fund.

anonymous note bidding me expect the arrival
of a case of books for my * Clerical Library/
carriage paid as far as possible. With much
anxiety I awaited the advent of the case, and
when it made its appearance its size was so
imposing that I did not grudge the nine shillings
I had to pay far its transit^ confidently hoping
to find many choice treasures in its contents.
Judge, then, my annoyance and my indignation
on seeing when it was opened that, with the
exception of a few well-bound books, of third-
rate worth, the case was chiefly filled with old
hymn-books, works by Unitarians, and books
against believers' Baptism I Does it not seem
cruel to mock my dear work thus, and give me
a ' stone * for my poor ministers who are asking
for * bread ' at my hands ? How to get rid of
the rubbish was now the question. ' Put the old
lumber in the furnace,' said an excited helper in
the unpacking. *No,' said another, whose mani-
fest annoyance somewhat solaced me ; ' no, it
would only choke up the flues — it \s not fit
even for that use.*"

Such is the work of the Book Fund Mrs.
Spurgeon has conferred benefit on the Church
both far-reaching and lasting ; and the pastors
of all denominations have become her debtonu

REVIEWS IN «• THE SWORD AND THB

TROWBUr

• •

wffl addrai t>M t^ mem UMML
HoM&nd •vefywhara i who we our wtU-wifhers and tapporten In
wohi of ftUth nnd labour of lofa • • • Our friends are to numerous as
to ko able to maintain a Magasinc^ and so earnest as to rpqnire one.
Oar MOBthlj message wiU be a supplement to our weeklj sermon, and
will enable m to say many things which would be out of place in a
disoonrse. It will inform the general Christian public of our move-
mentSi and show our sympathy with all that is good throughout the
entire Church of God. . • • We do not pretend to be unsectarian, if by
this be meant the absence of aU distinctive principles, and a desire to
plfliie parties of all shades of opinion. We believe and therefore
speak. We speak in love^ but not hi soft words and trimming sentences.
We shall not oouit controTersy, but we shall not shun it when the cause
of God demands it. . . • We would sound the trumpet, and lead our
conradet to the fight We would ply the trowel with untiring hand
for the building up of Jerusalem's dilapidated walls, and wield the
•word with vigour and vidour against the enemies of the truth."— >7%

XL

MEVIEJVS IN « THE SWORD AND THE

TROWELr

A FTER he had laboured in London rather
-^^ more than ten years, Mr. Spurgeon established
a monthly organ of his own, the title of which
may at first have seemed quaint or eccentric, but
which has since become thoroughly familiar to
lovers of good things through«^ut the British Isles.
Not that this threepenny magazine has ever really
enjoyed a popularity commensurate with its merits,
although the circulation has always been large for
a denominational magazine. From the first, one of
its leading and most attractive features consisted
in the Expositions of the Psalms, which commence
in the first number, and which have since taken a
more permanent form in The Treasury of David.
The magazine also showed that from the first
it would become an authority on books ; for the
quality of the notices given proved that those who
examined the works for the purpose of giving
judgment really took the trouble to read what

290 Reviews in ** The Sword and the Trowel!

they criticised. Of course all the notices were
not written by Mr. Spurgeon, and the editor early
protested against the habit of some publishers
affixing his name to advertised extracts. At the
same time, when anything unusually smart or
witty was said, it did not require any very acute
judge to say who was the author. In quoting a
few extracts let us b^n with the poets.

" How briskly the fire bums in the grate I Yes,
the editor has received a fresh lot of poetiy."
Thus suggestively opens a notice of ^ A Poem,*
alias ^ Bones and Fiddles.** '^ We wish the author
had let verse alone, for we do not believe that he
would be half so prosy in prose as he is in rhyme.*

The following appeared in 1882 : —

• Vers$ and Verse. Rhymes for Dinner Times.
Poem on a Boot Jack. Ode to a Poll Parrot.
Meditations and Agitations^ eta Tirem, Borem,
and Ca

''The above titles are given in lieu of many
others which have come before us. Our table
groans with Cowpers and Tennysons in an
embryonic condition. A San Francisco paper
having been driven desperate by voluntary poetical
contributions, sounds this note of warning : — * We
don't know exactly how newspapers were con-
ducted at that distant period, but during some
fiecent excavatfcma In Asi^ria a poem on Tk$

Impatteni Poets. J91

Silver Moan was dug up. It was engraved on a
tile, and close beside it were lying a large battered
club and part of a human skull. You may draw
your own conclusions/ We are led to quote this
as a warning to the many small poets who send
books of verses for review. Happily in our case
no club is kept on the premises, and we are most
gentle in temper ; but really, we are tried up to
the boiling point by the poetic coals which are
heaped upon us. Still, Job is our patron saint, and
we are resolved to endure unto the end. If any
verse-maker does not find his poem, or her poem,
mentioned in these notices, it is because we do not
like to cause pain by saying what we think about
the precious compositions. Please do not write
to say that your poetry must have been over-
looked ; for the fact is, we have looked it over,
and think it the wisest course to be silent
Perhaps the work is too sublime, too elevated in
thought, too superb in diction, for our grovelling
taste. Pray think so, or think anything else, so
long as you are happy. For the most part these
minor poets are our affliction, and if they would
be so good as to take offence, and never send us
another specimen of their wares, we would bless
them in our heart of hearts.''

More recently, a certain ^ Romaant * called
forth this response : '* No ; we cannot. If we

2g2 Reviews in ** The Sward and the TraweV*

were condemned to a week's imprisonment^ oi to
fead this poem through, we should be weak
enough to choose the latter ; but as we are not
driven to that alternative, we will neither go to
prison nor read this blank verse.** On another
occasion we come across the question, "* Is there
any rule for writing poetry? Yes. Don't. So
has a wise editor settled the matter, and in ninety-
nine cases out of a hundred the decision is not to
be questioned." Again, ^ A cynical old editor, who
overheard an enthusiast remark that nature is full
of poetry, snarled out, * So is my waste-basket.' "
Another editor commends to his contributors the
example of Tennyson, who composes very slowly,
and adds, ^ Never send in a poem to-day that can
be sent in to-morrow. Perhaps there will be a fire
before to-morrow.** On another occasion amateur
poets received this general advice from one who
keenly felt that their work represented '*one of
the miseries of the editorial chair.** ** We recom-
mend all poets, good or bad, to write carefully,
correct seventy-two times, keep the manuscript
ninety-nine years, and give orders for it to be
buried in their coffins with them. We only except
our personal friends, and any others who read this
magazine regularly : they have our plenary indul-
gence to write as much as ever they please and
send it on to us, enclosing a guinea with each line.**

^^ Poetry Again I ^ 293

In one case, wherein a second copy had been
sent, the author fearing that the first* had been
overlooked^ the unhappy editor remarked, *'The
volume is altogether beyond our reach. If we
receive a dozen copies of it we are afraid we shall
still gaze upon the work with wondering awe, but
shall never be able to see wherein it is superior
to Milton.**

At the end of 1874 this timely manifesto
appeared : ^ Poetry again ! This grunt rose as
naturally to our lips as the words * Cold mutton
again!' to the hungry husband who had looked for
better fare. The cross and burden of our review-
ing lies in the poetical department ; we can never
please the authors, and the authors do not often
please us. Why do they print ? It cannot be
for profit, their minds are far above so base a
consideration. It must be from the notion that
they bestow pleasure, and we can assure them
that they are greatly mistaken. ... It is the books,
the big books to be reviewed^ that we are sore
about, books of which we have two, three, four
copies sent because we have forgotten to review
them ; books we wish we could forget, and which
one never means to say anything about for fear
our memory should be cruel enough to remind
OS of them."

One of the minor brotherhood who had the

294 R^^^iews in ** The Sword and the Trowel^

temerity to send in his production *Just after
Christmas too t " was asked, ''What does he want
with Philetos and S^n, with two dots over the
^ o * ? What is the whole business about ? Why
did not the author put it in prose» and then we
should have known all about it in a reasonable
space of time ? It seems that he sat on a bough
and 'rocked his musings into drowsy rest,' and
then dedicated them to Tennyson, ' the sweetest
songbird of our native land/ ^

Of course there is occasionally something to
commend even in the work of minor poets, and
when real merit is discovered it is cordially re-
cognised. Many examples might be quoted were
it needful to do so.

Mr. Spurgeon has never disguised the fact that
he does not greatly care for tales; he seldom
reads these himself, but at the same time he has
given novelists plenty of wholesome advice. In
the case of one historical novel, written by one
who was supposed to rank as a popular author,
it was remarked : ^ Here are power, beauty,
pathos, philosophy, theology, and history all
strangely mixed together, and the result, while
flattering to the author's powers, is severely puz-
zling to the reader. Half the ability here displayed,
if only the style could be made clear and trans-
parent, would be far more effectual than it is now.

Fact versus Fancy. 295

How we wish writers would not be too clever I
It would make them doubly interesting and
doubly popular if they could be understood by
ordinary folk."

Of another historical story about Gutenberg,
the inventor of printing, it is said, "The worst of
it is, one does not know how much is true and
how much is a mere tale ; and this is one of the
mischiefs of this sort of literature, that it diminishes
the distinction between fact and fancy, and is too
apt to make young people think little of sober
truth,"

Sometimes the r^iewer^s patience b about as
sorely tried with the smaller fry in the realm of
fiction as with the persecutions of the minor poets^
We find it said of one, for example, ^ The wood-
cuts are so hideous that no story could survive
them, and certainly not so weak an affair as this.
With a new story and new pictures, like the boy's
knife with a new handle and a new blade, the
book might then be worth having." But we
suppose that even this was outdone by a certain
* grey-covered shilling'sworth of pietistic nonsense
about Chri^ianity in general, and Methodism in
particular;" of which it is added, ''If Wesleyanism
could be killed by fulsome flattery and idiotic
goodyism this would be its death-blow. But
there — no one could read the tale all through,

296 RwUws in ** IHe Sward and the Tnw€ir

and our wonder is that the compositors could set
it up; but they are a long-suffering race.** Again,
of another we have this definite verdict, ^ This is
the silliest book we have ever read. Perhaps this
will induce some silly person to buy it"

The teetotal movement is frequently advocated
by writers of fiction ; and one of these b depicted as
^ an accumulation of horrors, enough to make one
lay awake by nights and shiver with fright ; and
yet no one of the horrors b in itself overdrawn or
improbable. We should not like to be a drink-
maker or a drink-seller and have this tale within
ten miles of us. It has a mysterious hand like
that in Belshazzar's dream, and writes awful things
on the wall of the conscience."

Stoiy-tellers are also taught that mere eccen-
tricity is not a Intimate road to success, such
for example as writing in a provincial dialect ^ It
is the thought a man cares for ; and to get that one
can put up with Cornish, or Scotch, or Zummerzbt ;
but when the vein of gold no longer appears in
the quartz, we cease to be enamoured of the rock.
You may write in double-Dutch if you like, when
you have something to say; but when your
matter is commonplace, you will never make it
go by writing it in your country jargon.**

The wearisome books from the reviewer's
standpoint are l^on, such, for example as ** A

Unreadable Books. agy

wordy book about words, the value of which may
be summed up in few words.** Of another of this
class we learn that ** the title is the most striking
part of the book, but we warn our readers that
the only reference to it is found on the title-page.'*
Then it is added, ** What a pity it is that good
people should be silly enough to waste time and
paper and ink in writing what could scarcely
benefit any human being."

The reviewer's office is thus no sinecure, and it
is especially trying when a dty and empty theo-
Ic^cal book calls for notice. ** A very thoughtful
book, no doubt, but who will ever read it ? ** we
find it asked of one of these. ** Some conscien-
tious reviewer may perhaps complete the task;
we with equal conscientiousness decline it Sitting
one day at the foot of a mountain at our ease, we
advised all our friends to climb it, and awarded
all sorts of praise to those who achieved the feat :
so now, we say, ' Here is a grand book for you,
my lads ; never mind its being dry ; just tackle
it, and show your stamina/ 'Oh,* you say,
* read it yourself.' Not if we know it. We have
other fish to fry.** But perhaps even this was
to be preferred to another — ^ Rubbish in rhyme,
without any reason.** Then hardly more re-
assuring is an elaborate work on misunderstood
texts by one who gives sufficient evidence that

298 Reviews in ** Tike Sword and the TrowelT

the also misunderstands theixu In one instance a
General is found writing an exposition of the last
book of the New Testament, but harder to be
understood than the Revelation itself.

There are some authors who succeed only
up to a certain point ; and the following timely
caution addressed to a certain writer can be well
accepted by many others : ** The style is clear,
crisp, and attractive up to a certain point, and
will be sure to be read ; but we are half-afraid it
is too * preachy/ Souls are wondrously shy things,
and must be very wisely dealt with : the old-
fashioned tract style of writing is scarcely likely
to do much to-day.**

Books which attempt to tell things beyond such
as are revealed are always a mistake, and are not
at all in accordance with Mr. Spurgeon's taste.
Of one of the best known of these we read :
** Time spent in examining this rubbish we greatly
grudge. Dreamy, foolish nonsense, with a touch

of something worse. Messrs. have brought

out many curiosities ; this is certainly one of the
oddest of them, and, we think, the most worth-
less.**

The following relates to the Welsh and their
preachers :— •• Our brethren of the Principality
are as good sermon-hearers as any people under
heaven, and their ministers, encouraged by their

The Wonders of Welsh. 299

enthusiastic appredation, are nrged on to excel
in pulpit eloquence. Moreover, as their language
hf according to their own judgment — and thejr
ought to know— -so heavenlyi so divine, it is no
great marvel that those who use it are able to
produce extraordinary results. As we see it in
print, we feel that our friends are right ; it is an
unearthly language and to us unutterable. LI and
a w, double 1 again, and a y, and then the rest of
the alphabet shot down like a load of coals—
what can this muddle mean? The man who
can pronounce these jumbles of consonants must
be a bom orator."

The writers on prophecy are a somewhat
numerous tribe, and are a source of anno)rance
to old-fashioned students of the Bible like Mr.
Spui^eon. ''The subject has been dragged in
the mire so long that thoughtful men are slow to
write on if When some ^ Short Papers" ap-
peared some years ago it was said, ^ The best thing
about these * Short Papers ' is that they are short?

Of a well-known magazine, mainly devoted to
speculations in this department, and the editor of
whick was personally much respected, it was said :
^ Its present light is not equal to the production
of a lunar rainbow, such as lovers of the old-
fashioned gospel of covenant grace delight to
look upon; In its prophetic moonshine^ and

300 Rwuws in '* The Sword and the Trmoei:'

short-punishment theorisings we see no lainbowy
unless it be a lunar one.''

Again, it \m remarked on this subject : " That
good paper and ink should be wasted in maunder-
ings over vials and trumpets is bad enough, but
that Christian men should be led to draw vain
imaginings as to coming events from the grand
Apocalyptic vision is grievous to the last dq^ree.
The imposture of those who foretold the end of
the papacy in 1866 ought to have covered them
with shame sufficient to have deterred all aspiring
prophetlings, but it seems to have called forth
another band of vaticinators, who set the date a
little later, or^^ more wisely still, postpone it to the
year 2000, by which time they expect to have
spent their profits, and to have retired from the
scene." One writer of mature age made out that
the geological periods of creation had correspond-
ing periods in redemption. Says the reviewer,
however : ^ The only analogy we could see was
between the book itself and the earth when it
was without form and void, and darkness was upon
the face of the deep/' Twenty years ago the
* wonders " that were to appear before the end of
1875 were terribly striking to lovers of the sensa-
tional in theology ; but when a well-known cleric
narrated some of these in a separate publication
his work was characterised as *' Probably the

Caryl ana Bunyan. 301

wildest of all the wild things which the present
prophetic mania has produced. T*his volume of
nonsense is adorned with pictures such as would
suit the outside of a travelling show^ and its
matter will have great weight vjith the sort of
audience which gathered to see Katterfelto and
his black cats, Katterfelto with his hair on end
at his own wonders, wondering for his bread**

From all this it is pleasant to turn to what
is said about Puritans, with whom Mr. Spurgeon
is probably as familiar as any preacher in the
kingdom.

Nearly twenty years ago it was proposed to
reprint Caryl's two vast folios on the Book of Job^
the reading of which has for generations been
regarded as the best possible discipline in the
virtue for which the patriarch was famous. Mr.
Spurgeon does not think with the crowd on
Caryl, however. ^ Caryl is not tediously prolix,
as some imagine,** we are assured ; '' he is deep
but interesting. Truly he is a mountain, but the
sheep feed even to the summit*'

Then what about Bunyan, imitations of whose
allegories still continue to appear ? ^ If you eat
honey you cannot taste the sugar in your tea ; if
you read John Bunyan you cannot enjoy any other
allegory. There is only one sun, and when you
look upon it you never think of mentioning candles

JOS Reviews in ** The Sword and the Trowel.'*

in the same hour." Some years ago the ^^car of
Elstow published a capital book with the object
of getting a stained-glass window put up In the
parish church. Mr. Spurgeon confessed that he
could not see ^ the congruity of the thing.** It
was asked, ^ Why not repair a Catholic chapel as
a memorial of Martin Luther? or the Baptist
chapel at Elstow as a memorial of Charles II. ?
• • • If John Bunyan's ghost walks the earth
it will haunt the church until the stained-glass
window is removed, if, indeed, it is ever placed."

The writings of Gumal are said to be ** peerless
and priceless ; every line is full of wisdom ; every
sentence is suggestive.** Of ^The Christian in
Complete Armour** it is added: ^The whole book
lias been preached over scores of times, and it
i% in our judgment, the best thought-breeder in
all our library.** Again, Gumal ^is one of the
greatest of the giants of the Puritan age. Many
of our modem theological treatises are so devoid
of real substance, that we are reminded of the
chicken-broth which the sick husband retumed to
his wife, with the urgent request that she would
coax the chicken to wade through it once more ;
but when we turn to Gumal, the old English roast
beef loads the board.**

^ Rare John Traf^** tlie seventeenth century
conuaentalor. is cattad "oar favourite author.**

Honey versus Salt. 303

His work on the New Testament ^ is worth its
weight in gold at the least, and sooner than not
possess it we would throw in a diamond ring or
twOt if we possessed such things.''

Many leading divines of the second half of
the nineteenth century are noticed. More than
twenty years ago the prophetical doctor, alias
Thi Times Bee-Master, diversified his pulpit
vagaries by publishing a book on Bee-keeping, in
which he expressed a wish ^ that somebody would
•end Mr. Spurgeon a super of good honey" to
sweeten his temper. "Why he should need to
drag us in among his bees, we cannot tell, unless it
be that our faithful rebukes of Anglican abomina-
tions have reminded him of his own unworthy
silence on such matters, and he therefore attempts
to drown the voice of his own conscience by
finding fault with us." It is then added : " In
spiritual things we greatly prefer salt to honey ;
remembering that it b written, * In all thine
offerings, thou shalt oifer salt ; ' and again, * Ye
shall bum no leaven, nor any honey, in any
offering of the Lord made by fire.' Salt, though
sharp and penetrating, is the deadly foe of all
corruption ; and honey, on the other hand, though
sweet, is corruptible, soon ferments and turns sour.
Fire speedily spoils the sweetest honey. We advise
\he doctor to use more salt in his public ministry."

304 Rwiews m '* Tke Sword and the Tratvel.

The opinion given oo Mr. H. W. Beechef's
Sermons^ published in 1865, would, we believe^
hold good to-day : ^ He professedly deviates from
the old American standard of orthodoxy, and in
the same proportion, as we think, departs from
the truth. As an improvement upon the theolc^y
of the Puritan fathers, his teaching will be rejected
by the best of men in this and in every subsequent
age. • . • Lessons of moral wisdom, of social en-
dearment, and of practical piety, may be gathered
from these sermons ; but for sound doctrine we
must look elsewhere. It is a lawful book if a
man use it lawfully.**

Speaking of the late Thomas Binney in 1 868
Thi Sword and the Trowel said : ** He has ways
of his own of putting things which some in years
gone by have been frightened at, but we greatly
question whether any man after all was sounder
at heart towards the old-fashioned GospeL In this
delightful volume — •* From Seventeen to Thirty *
—he proves himself to be the greatest business
man in the ministry. He talks as if he had been
bound apprentice to Mr. Samuel Morley, had
worked his way into the warehouse, had become
a partner, and was now appointed by the court of
aldermen to see to the morals of the city appren-
tices; He ought to be an archbishop over this
nation of shopkeepers. • • • Set him among a

Briars and Brambles. 305

very spiritual audience of half-pay officers and
wealthy spinsters, and he would be like a lion
on a hearth-rug, but for where he is and for
what hb is, where is his equal ? **

The editor has no sympathy with those who
devote too much attention to objectors while the
multitude need the pure Gospel. When a work
appeared, •• IngersoU Answered,** Mr. Spurgeon
said, ^We neither care for IngersoU nor the
answer to hinu There is enough to do in England
with cutting up our own brambles ; nine out of
ten of our people know nothing of this American
briar, and there is no need they should * He said
also to another author on a certain occasion :
•• Why need * Essays and Reviews ' and Dr. Colenso
be put up just to show how elegantly they can be
knocked down ? Orthodox divines too often do
the advertising for heretics, and turn bill-stickers
to the deviL Why should they ? We are getting
tired of ghost-hunting.*

Thomas Cooper, the ex-Chartist, and ex*
Secularist lecturer, but who since his conversion
has done good service as a preacher, etc, has long
been a favourite with Mr. Spurgeon. ** It is no
disgrace to Cooper, or to any other man, to have
been a Chartist," it is said in the magazine for
August 1878. "^ The Chartists only lived a little
before their time, all the points of their terribte

3o6 Rivuws m ** 7X# Sword and th$ Trowel^

Charter having at length been granted* in effect, if
not in letter ; and there was nothing unrighteous
or revolutionary in their demands. It was a far
grander thing to have our mechanics caring for
politics than to see them fighting for a double
allowance of beer and a short spell of work. The
modem agitator is a poor being compared with
his predecessor of forty years aga By so much
as thinking is better than boozing, the discontented
artisan of Thomas Cooper's early days was
superior to the man on strike of the present
period." ^•

Some years ago certain books by Francis
Jacox were popular. ^ Mr. Jacox appears to have
read through the Bodleian and all other collec-
tions of books ; he does not talk like a book, but
like the British Museum library. • • • We do not
know any books in modem times at all like
Mr. Jacox's ; they are unique ; in fact* they are
curiosities of literature. • • • The man must be a
cyclopaedia ; we expect to come across him one
day, and to find him bound in cloth, lettered.
He ought to be in several volumes, but we
suppose they are bound up in one thick royal
octavo, and contain more matter than a hun-
dred volumes of Dr. Going or Dr. Septimus
Losequick.**

In 1883 tlie Rev J. De Kewer Williams

Miltnan and Napoleon I. 307

published his lecture on ** The City Mottoes, and
Other Wise Saws.** This was said to be "^ a clever
talk by a witty man, who is withal as wise as he
is facetious. We spent a very pleasant hour in
listening to a reading of this telling lecture : it
was under the palmtrees at Cannes, but we forgot
our surroundings, and thought we were in the
dear old city of Gog and Magog and Fog, with
Mn De Kewer Williams for our pedagogue/*

In 1880 reference occurs to a once popular
** History of the Jews **:-—** Milman's is an elaborate
work, but it seems to us to cut down the glorious
Old Testament narrative to the dimensions of
an Eastern romance. There is not much real
breadth in these Broad Church writers : th^ can
hardly tolerate a miracle.**

When *" Julius Caesar** appeared in 1865, The
Sword and thi Trowel contained a characteristic
notice, e^. i — ^ This great work is beyond doubt
a most valuable contribution to history, and an
honour to the pen of its imperial author. It will
not disappoint the high expectations which its
announcement excited It is written with one
object, and works towards its intended end most
cleverly. Napoleon III. is the preacher, Caesar
b the text to be spiritualized ; the excellences of
imperialism are the subjects of the homily, and
glory be unto my immortal uncle is the conclusion.'*

^00 Rwiews in '* The Sword and the Trowel.''

Children's books have always demanded a large
share of attention ; and by his notices of these
Mr. Spurgeon has shown how greatly he is in
sympathy with the little ones. Sometimes he
seems to be so enchanted with what is provided
for juvenile readers that he wishes he were once
more in a jacket himself, so that he could more
l^itimately enjoy the literary dainties peculiar to
the present age. Then take this example of the
reviews— a notice of a work on geography which
appeared in 1880: — ^** Happy young England to
be taught thus pleasantly I One while the tree of
knowledge bore thorns and crabs, but now it is
a dainty tree, beflowered as with golden lilies
of pleasure, and befruited with rosiest apples of
delight Geography — ^have we really been taking
in a whole jar of that verjuice ? Yes, and we
thought we were out a-gipsying, roaming from
town to town, o'er hill and dale. Ah me I This
is not the geography which made our little head
ache, and caused school to be a torture both to
the teacher and the taught"

We will close this chapter with a few mis-
cellaneous references illustrative of the wit and
wisdom on other every-day topics which is con-
tinually enriching the pages of The Sword and
the Trowel in the review department

When many church-members are apparently

Christians' Amusefnenis. 309

asking themselves how far they can go in con«
formity to the world, the following notice of Anna
Warner's "Tired Christians," which appeared in
1882, will show what kind of sentiments Mr.
Spurgeon holds on this subject :-^— ** Just our mind
with regard to dancing, theatre-going, and the
like. Well does our authoress confess her
difficulty in writing about amusements for
Christians, since no such word as amusementi
recreation, game, or pastime can be found in the
Scriptures. No : in the sacred book we read that
time is short, and we are bidden to redeem it|
but never taught how to waste it • • • Tired
Christians will find frivolous amusement a poor
means of rest ; we fear that many are more
wearied by their play than by their work, and
are more likely to be jaded by dissipation than
by devotion."

What is the relationship between work and
genius ? The answer occurs in a notice of Mr.
H. Curwen's "Plodding On," published in 1879:
** By the way, it would be a gross error if men
imagined that men of genius do not work. To
our mind, genius generally means that a man
has a tendency and an aptitude for double to
in a certain direction, and hence he prospers
in it. A genius for hard work is the only geniua
we believe in. We once knew a fellow who

3IO Rivuws M ** The Sward and the Trowel^

called a genius^ and boasted that he could make
his fortune in a year : the last time we heard of
him he could not make a personal call to borrow
five shillings because his uncle detained his coat
and waistcoat We shall not advertise for him
if we never hear of him again.**

What is Spiritualism? The question wu
answered In Mr. Pridham's ''Spirits Tried,"
published in 1874. In a notice of that work we
read :— ** We had aforetime considered Spiritual-
ism to be a mere humbug, to be best assailed by
ridicule^ and such we still believe it to be in most
cases; but Mr. Pridham's work puts a more
serious face upon the business, and certainly
makes us think that the devil has a good deal
more to do with it than we imagined. We gave
him credit for more sense ; he is certainly a
greater fool than we took him to be. We always
had the lowest possible opinion of him morally,
but we thought he could not come down so low
as to be in league with idiotic spiritualists. He
is certainly a deal meaner than when Milton
wrote about him.*

Writers who are too florid are not generally
admired, especially in Tht Sword and the Tratvel;
so that in order to catch the editor's attention,
and to command his approbation, it is not well
to be ** one of those who would go into raptures

"" Servid it Right r 311

3ver a broomstick, and praise the picturesque
beauty of a dust-heap.** Nor in general does
plagiarism meet with anything short of the
severest condemnation. I will close these
extracts with a description of the treatment
accorded to a book whose author was detected
in stealing other people's wares. The work in
question was published some years ago, and
related to the pulpit, its occupants, its literature,
etc ^ Notes on reading tfUs volume : — Received it
with great pleasure, liking the subject and respect-
ing the publisher, and also the author. • • • Reached
page 12, and smelt a strong smell of Roman
candles while reading remarks on baptismal
regeneration, fonts, and altars. Passed on, and
began to sniff again, for there was a remarkable
odour of abounding plagiarism. Remembered to
have heard Mr. Paxton Hood's lectures to our
young men, now published as * Lamps, Pitchersi
and Trumpets ' ; marked the same extracts, often
bq^nning and ending with the same word, and
with the same headings. Pitched the book to
the other end of the room, and despite a few
interesting novelties could not bring our soul to
do other than cry out, * Dead robbery I * Picked
up the book with its back broken, and muttered,
•Served it right'*

Every month tilt pages of Mr. Spurgeoo's

31 1 Reviews in ** T^ Sword and the Trowel^

magazine devoted to reviews thus contain a great
fund of instruction as well as of entertainment
In a wordi Mr. Spurgeon, who is the most
celebrated preacher of this age, has also made
his mark as a reviewer of new books. If we
desire to see how he can deal with old ones
we have only to consult hit Commenting mnd
Cemnuntariio^

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS AND REMINIS-

CENCES.

Let US turn our earnest attention to the subject of our posi«
TION TOWARD OUR LORD. . . . As he Stood in our Stead,
we also stand in kis stead. To our hearers we can truly say,
"We pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
Our Lord Jesus Christ lays his pierced hands upon our
shoulders, and he says, " As the Father hath sent me into the
world, even so send I you." We are commissioned to plead
for Christ, even as he is commissioned to plead for us. For
him we climb those stairs to point that sick and ignorant
woman to the blood of reconciliation. For him we stand in
the pulpit, and speak of sin, and righteousness, and judgment
to come. In his place we cry " Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world !"— ** Thb Minister in
Thbsb Times," A Conference Address at the Pastor's Collesget
Aprit 22. X890.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS AND REM-

INISCENCES.

CPURGEON was first of all, and most of all,
*^ a preacher.

Into the preacher's work he stepped at sixteen,
and from that moment all who heard him — ^and
at length all the world — recognized his right to
be there. All else of the vast work he has done
has been founded upon and centred around the pul-
pit work of preaching. He devised his Pastor's Col*
lege to train other men to preach — and to preach to
the people — as the universities were not training
them to do. His commentaries look out into the
pulpit rather than back into the study; the homiletic
element in them overshadows the scholarly. His
printed sermons were to preach to all the English-
speaking race, and, beyond that, in all the lan-
guages of men. Through them he had the g^ft of
tongues. For this he maintained that wonderful
series, numbering now more than 3,000, never
allowing him to repeat himself or to sleep on his
laurels for well-nigh forty years.

Even his Orphan Asylums, his Home for Aged
Ministers, his Old Ladies' Home, and other charities

(315)

31 6 Concluding Thoughts.

were the outgrowth of a pastor's warm heart His
••Sword and Trowel" was a kind of week-day
preaching, and his " John Ploughman's Talks " are
homilies on everyday religion — simply an un-
inspired Book of Proverbs.

Personal Memories.

BY RBV. J. C. FERNALD.

On the first Sunday evening, after reaching
London, more than twenty years ago, the writer
sought out Spurgeon's Tabernacle. How to find
it? That was very easy. Any Londoner could
telL It is ••just opposite 'The Elephant and
Castle.*" Now ••The Helephant and Castle," as
the Londoners most appropriately call it, is a great
gin-palace. You go down through streets which
it is not always safe for men to traverse, even in
the early evening, till you come where the lights
of the g^n-shop gleam, and the green doors swing,
swing, to the constant trafQc in drink, and poor,
todden, or emaciated creatures stand or sit hope-
lessly around the entrance. That is your land-
mark, and you know that by just turning your
back on that scene of desolation and sin, you
will face Spurgeon's Tabernacle.

It is a dull, rainy evening, and you flatter your-
self it will be a good chance to hear the great
preacher, l>ecause there will be no crowd. But
when you reach the great gray stone portico, its
rows of columns enclosing a space large enough
for a fair-sized church, lo, the crowd is there al-
ready. The space is half full of people, standing

The Mixed Multitude. 3 1 7

closely packed, right up to the grtfat doors. Peo-
ple quickly crowd in behind you, till you are
wedged fast You turn to your neighbor, a plain,
honest-appearing man, and ask if there is anything
special to take place here this evening. He seems
rather surprised, and answers " Nothing but Mr.
Spurgeon's regular service," as one who would say
"What more would you have?"

The rain pours down, and the people pour in, till
the great vestibule is full. The hour arrives, the
doors are opened, and with a rush — quiet but de-
termined — the crowd surges in. People have been
admitted by ticket at a side-door for an hour past,
and the pews are perhaps half filled. They are
filled to the doors in an instant now; for the law
of the Tabernacle is that every seat is free from
the moment the main doors are opened. You are
quickly shoved into a seat, and fastened in tight
by those who follow, and still the crowd presses on
and on, like a bayonet charge, till every seat is full,
and a solid phalanx packs every aisle, two-thirds
of the way to the pulpit; standing there, silent, at-
tentive, expectant. While waiting for the preacher,
you glance at your neighbors. In the pews arc
many who are evidently thoughtful. Christian peo»
pie; there are scholarly and clerical men — some of
distinguished appearance — scattered through the
crowd, yet the first feeling of a well-bred New
Englander is a certain disgust. These blear-eyed
men, these loudly-dressed, coarse-faced women,
these poverty-stricken, unwashed street denizens
thronging around you — some in your very pew

3iS Cmuluding Thoughts.

whom ytm woifld not care to be seen with on the
ttrteti Your Involuntary feeling is, that you are
In disreputable society. You are not accustomed
to go to church with such people, and you want to
get out. Suddenly It occurs to you that Jesus
used to draw a crowd which the proper people of
His day did not approve of. You remember the
question ** Why eateth your Master with publicans
and sinners?" and you begin to wonder if the
Scribes and Pharisees did not feel just about as
you do; or, to put the case another way, whether
you do not feel pretty much as the Scribes and
Pharisees did. You remember that they did not
get much encouragement for that state of mind.
You recall the words of the Lord: " They that are
whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to re-
pentance. The Son of Man is come to seek and to
save that which is lost." Well, here they are, the
•* sick," the " sinners," the ** lost " beyond perad-
venture. You settle back into your seat, glad that
any way they can be won into the house of God.
But will they get any good from such a service, or
are they drawn only by curiosity, a crowd, and a
shelter? There is a subdued hum and rustle, and,
attended by a little company of friends, deacons,
and honored guests, the great preacher comes in.
Hardly a moment elapses before he comes forward,
offers up a brief prayer, and gives out a hymn.
You forget the crowd, and everything else but the
man, and the worship of Almighty God, to which
he has called you.

Hymns and Sermon. 319

Mr. Spurgeon does not exactly ^Mine off" the
hymn, but he remembers that many of those peo*
pie have no books, and that many of them cannot
read. So he reads one verse of a hymn, and waits
for it to be sung — then reads another — and so on;
he standing there as leader through all. A clear-
voiced chorister takes up the hymn, and thousands
of voices join, "like the noise of many waters."
Ah, it is grand, thrilling ! The Scripture is read
as by a man who believes it; every word clear, with
here and there a comment, to "give the sense, and
cause the people to understand the meaning."

Mr. Spurgeon has no pulpit. When the opening
services are ended, he steps forward to the front,
and resting one hand easily on the railing that en*
closes the platform, he begins to preach, with clear,
terse, strong sentences. There are no dubious ex*
planations, nothing faltering or cloudy. "I be*
lieve, and therefore have I spoken " is behind every
word. Soon there is a felt bush through the vast
throng, as the preacher mightily " reasons of right*
eousness, temperance, and judgment to come.**
Then, as he tells of the tender mercy of our God,
** not willing that any should perish, but that ALL
should come to repentance," tears steal down the
faces of these rough men and women with whom
you at first hardly thought fit to worship in the
same sanctuary. Oh, how reverently they depart
when the sermon is ended ! Who shall say what
results to follow in new hearts and lives ? You go
away with wondering exaltation, the New Testa*
ment somehow translated anew. Spui^geoo hat

320 Concluding Thoughts.

nis Master's credentials. "The common people
hear him gladly. The poor have the Gospel
preached to them."

Again and again you go» and the experience is
the same — the crowd never less — the preacher's
power never faltering — the speaker never repeat-
ing himself — the one great theme of salvation
always his message, yet new as the changing days.
He is one with his audience. He worships with
them. He prays for them. You feel instinctively
when he prays, that here is a man strong enough
and good enough to bear up on his anointed hands
toward heaven the prayers of a host — the grandest
idea that ever entered into the thought of a priest-
hood between God and itien.

But his preaching is at the furthest remove from
any priestly idea. It is that of a plain man to plain
men ; but of a man who has got farther than you
on the way to God — is glad that he has, and eager
to tell you of it, that you may " go there too." He
IS at home with his audience. One Sunday morn-
ing, when he had given out the first verse of a
grand old hymn, the people had somehow not
caught the spirit of it. The moment the last sounds
of the song died away, Mr. Spurgeon closed his
hymn-book, with finger still between the leaves, and
resting the book on the railing before him, raised
the other hand, in his familiar gesture, and ex-
claimed, " That is not to the praise and glory of
God. You would not sing those words like that
if you thought what they meant." Then, opening
the book, in a few ring^ing sentences he gave the

The Gospel of Hope. 321

thought of the hymn, adding, '' Now let us try that
verse again." He read it once more, and it was
sung with thrilling, heart-moving power. This
well illustrates one characteristic of Mr. Spurgeon.
He utters no killing criticisms or anathemas. He
never exposes or denounces fault or sin for the sake
of exposing or denouncing it. Sometimes he seems
to lay bare the hearer's very soul before the moral
law and the Majesty in the heavens. But just when
the heart is most oppressed and humiliated with
the consciousness of unworthiness, he says in effect,
" Let us try again ; let us return unto the Lord,"
and sweetly rings out the Gospel of hope.

Spurgeon's power as a preacher is not according
to accepted rhetorical standards. He has not the
stately figure and fine presence which are said to
be essential. He is not above medium height, and
too stout for what is called grace of motion, except
the grace of massive solidity, consistent with itself.
He has not the spirituelle cast of countenance^ the
lofty brow, and delicately cut features, nor the
soul-piercing eye. The expression of eye and face
is not that of one who has come to search you, but
to tell you something he is greatly in earnest to
tell, and glad to tell, and expects you to be
interested in.

But his voice takes you captive from the moment
it strikes your ear. Full, deep, mellow, clear,
penetrating, it rolls forth and fills all the space
with rich waves of sound. Yet, at first, you do
not think of the voice, but of what the voice is
saying. The preacher seems to be speaking

322 Concluding Thoughts.

directly to you, and for you, and there is nothing
so natural as to listen to what he has to say. It is
only when you have come again and again, and
iistened from every point in the vast building,
when you find that right under the platform you
are not stunned* and do not seem to be shouted at,
and that standing just inside the door of the
farthest gallery you hear with perfect ease and
without the slighest strain on your attention, just
as if someone were to come up and make a re-
mark at your side — only then do you realize what a
marvellous organ is the great preacher's voice.
Then, the charm of it is, that he makes no per-
ceptible effort. He seems to speak as easily as if
you were seated in his parlor, and he were just
entering into conversation on some pleasant
theme.

Again and again — sometimes through long
stretches of the sermon — each hearer, whatever
his place, rank, or character, feels as if he were
personally addressed. Mr. Spurgeon has come to
speak to you, and a few thousand heads more or
less between you and him make no sort of differ-
ence. ** He that hath ears" cannot choose but
hear.

He can be closely personal in his preaching. One
Sunday night he preached on the little text, " And
He shall be great " — and how great that text be-
came ! The burden of the sermon was that Christ
is made great by victories of salvation ; and the
salvation he spoke of was that of individual sinners.
In the peroration, be applied this redemption as a

/^e^v/nal Preaching. 323

person'^i ^c^jbiUcy to the host, class by class, and
almost niP.r> »>y iraa. At one moment, he swept
his hind ard glance across the high gallery at his
(eft, and exclaimed, *' If Christ would come to that
drunkard, and wash his mouth out^ wouldn't that
make Jesus Christ great ? " There is no describing
the intonation which the speaker put upon those
homely words " wash his mouth out," As he ut-
tered them, they seemed to carry the entire physi-
cal and moral renovation of the man, till you could
see him cleansed from his pollution, •* at the feet of
Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." Then, the
ringing triumph with which the closing words were
uttered ^""wouldn't that make Jesus Christ great t**
was like an echo of angels* songs of " joy over one
•inner that repenteth." It was a word to gfive to
the forlorn wretch the thought that even his re*
demption would be a glorious triumph for the
crucified Redeemer, over which all the good in
heaven and earth would rejoice.

As we came away, one minister of our party said»
'' Well, he preached to the publicans and sinnerSi
the drunkards and the harlots, and he had them all
there:*

The writer went one Sunday afternoon into the
Voung Men's Class, in one of the large basement
rooms of the Tabernacle. It was a strange service
viewed from the American standpoint There were
something more than a hundred young men, and
the exercises were largely of a conference-meeting
character. One of these young men would arise,
read a verse of a hymn, speak of his own reiigiouf

3^4 Concluding Thoughts.

•

experience or work, and sit down; then another and
another would follow. Often it was hard, stum«
bling work to read through the four lines of some
simple stanza. Such an exercise would not, at first
thought, seem likely to be very profitable* But
here is one young man who has to be helped
through his reading, who tells his story about as
follows :

" I was sent with Brother B. down to Street;

and found our mission in a room over a shop. It
was a good, large room for that quarter ; and Mrs.
— made it very interesting, but there were only
a few people there. I said to Brother B. ' It's a
shame to have that nice, big room, and such a good
leader, and the room not half full; and people so
thick about here.' He agreed with me, and we
prayed over it, and the next Sunday morning we
started out early, and went to the top of one alley,
and began to sing. Pretty soon a crowd came
round us, and then we told 'em what a good thing
'twas to love Jesus, and all the good it had done
us, and told 'em about our room down on —
Street, and that we*d have service there at half*
after-ten, and they'd all be welcome. Then we
went to the next alley, and did the same; and
when the time for service came, that room was
full.

''Next Sunday we went again. We sung and
went down through the alleys and gave tracts to
everybody that would take 'em, and told *em about
the meeting, and the room wouldn't hold the people;
and Mr. Spurgeon got us a bigger room^ and h«

The Young MetCs Class. 325

■eat Mr. L. from the pastor's college to preach; and
now there's a revival and Mr. Spurgeon says we
shall have a chapel down there, and he has part of
the money for it."

So they went on with stories, not always so strik*
ing as this, but all of work done, and the Lord's
blessing received, in answer to praj^er, labor, and
sacrifice. There was not much talk of their own
feelings, but of something done for Christ ; and that
a something which was level to their power and op-
portunities, apd brought a sure result of good. It
occurred to us that the Lord God Omnipotent could
dispense with reading and spelling; that devout
hearts and simple, direct work for souls could ac-
complish much good with little learning. We
thought, too, that it would be quite possible to
educate these men too much — away from "the
common people" of whom they were now a part,
and with whom they were in such hearty sym-
pathy. Assuredly we err, if we hold that the
world must wait for conversion till every preacher
can have ten years of school and university
training.

Spurgeon's Pastor's College is built oh a solid
basis of lay preachers, from whom there is a constant
coming up, by natural growth in the work, into the
regular ministry; while many remain for life in the
useful ranks of unordained workers for souls. The
Pastor's College expressly aims not to give a kind
of learning that would educate men away from
this homely and wholesome service, but only what
will prepare them better for it

3^6 Concluding Thoughts.

SiCKMBSS AND SUFFERIMO.

One remarkable thing about Mr. Spurgeon*s
work is, that it has been done for many years in
the midst of ill health, involving often great weak-
ness and intense pain. He has been obliged almost
every winter to visit Mentone in the South of
France for some temporary relief from his persistent
enemy, rheumatic gout But, through all these
years, even his sick-room life has been fruitful.
Exquisitely beautiful discourses, spoken to his
fellow invalids, have gone forth to the sick-rooms
of the nations, and with a message to troubled hearts
everywhere.

In one of these "talks," as he calls them, he g^ves
a bit of personal experience which throws an in-
teresting light on his methods of work. He says :
"It has been my habit for years to make everything
yield me an illustration. The other day it rained,
and I could not leave my room. My window looked
out on a little square, in which the only thing to
notice was a pump. What illustration could there
be in that ? Well, I watched the people who came to
draw water, and at length I saw one man who came
over and over again. I asked myself why he came
so often, and I said, ' It cannot be for himself. He
roust be drawing water for others. Then surely,
I, who have so many to pray for, ought to go of-
tener than other men to the throne of grace.' "

Yet his ill-health has scarcely been allowed to
check his great work. Through all, he has been
the same toiling, achieving man. Macaulay said

Ceaseless Industry. 327

of the old Puritan, " In his retirement he prayed
with convulsions and groans and tears. But when
he took his seat in the council, or girt on his sword
for war, these tempestuous workings of the soul
had left no visible trace behind them." So when,
after illness and pain, Spurgeon has stood in the
Tabernacle pulpit again, it has not been as an
invalid or martyr ; not as an object of pity, but as
one indeed able to draw water from the wells of sal-
vation for all the throng — a commander, a helper,
a deliverer. It may be that he has been stronger
for the very weakness and pain he has conquered.
Somehow his diligent studies have gone on. The
Sword and The Trowel has regularly appeared. His
great work. The Treasury of David^ has been
finished. He has kept his hand on his Pastor's
College, and its students have felt his inspiration
and sympathy. The number of his printed ser-
mons has been steadily augmented, and every
little while, as it has seemed, he has uttered some-
where in England one of those Conference Addresses
in which he indulged himself in the play of a light
and genial humor which does not appear in his
sermons, but which sets truth before the mind
with a freshness and vividness that cannot be
excelled, and is not easily forgotten. One of the
very best of these was his latest. The Greatest Fight
in the Worlds in which he defended with all the
vigor and power of his earlier years the doctrine of
the Inspiration of the Scriptures which he so de-
voutly cherished.

328 Concluding Thoughts.

Th£ BiBLfiy TH£ Critics^ and the Chubch.

In this latest published address, speaking of the
arrogant claims of certain scientists and critics,
Mr. Spurgeon exclaims:

"But where shall infallibility be found? The depth
s;.ith, * It is not in me * ; yet those who have no depth at all
would have us imagine that it is in them ; or else by per-
petual change they hope to hit upon it. Are we to believe
that infallibility is with learned men ? Now, Farmer Smith*
when you have read your Bible, and have enjoyed its
precious promises, you will have, to-morrow morning, to go
down the street to ask the scholarly man at the parsonage
whether this portion of the Scripture belongs to the inspired
part of the Word, or whether it is of dubious authority. It
will be well for you to know whether it was written by the
Isaiah, or whether it was by the second of the 'two
Obadiahs.' "

Or again:

" We travel now at so rapid a rate that we rush by sets
of scientific hypotheses as quickly as we pass telegraph
posts when riding in an express train. All that we are cer-
tain of to-day is this, that what the learned were sure of a
few years ago is now thrown into the limbo of discarded
errors. I believe in science, but not in what is called
• science.' No proven fact in nature is opposed to revela*
tion. The pretty speculations of the pretentious we cannot
reconcile with the Bible, and would not if we could."

Here is an exceedingly apt hit at certain
preachers of doubts and negations:

*' Don't puzzle your people with doubtful tpeechea.
' Well,' said one ' I had a new idea the other day. I did not
•nlarge upon it ; but I just threw it out.' That is a veqr

The Mission of the Church. 329

gxxkl thinjf to do with most of your new ideas. Throw them
out» by all means ; but mind where you are when you do it;
for if you throw them out from the pulpit they may strike
somebody, and inflict a wound upon faith. Throw out your
fancies, but first go alone in a boat a mile out to sea. When
you have once thrown out your unconsidered trifles, leave
them to the fishes."

Of some " explanations " of Scripture, he says :

** If you smash up an explanation you must not imagine
that you have damaged the scriptural truth which seemed
to require the explanation; you have only burned the
wooden palisades with which well-meaning men thought to
protect an impregnable fort which needed no such defence.
For the most part, we had better leave the difficulty where
it is, rather than make another difficulty by our theory.

Here is his view of the mission of the church:

" We are rowing like lifeboat men upon a stormy sea, and
we are hurrying to yonder wreck, where men are perishing.
If we may not draw that old wreck to shore, we will at
least, by the power of God, rescue the perishing, save life,
and bear the redeemed to the shores of salvation. Our
mission, like our Lord's, is to gather out the chosen of God
from among men, that they may live to the glory of God.
Every saved man should be, under God, a saviour ; and the
church is not in a right state until she has reached that con*
ception of herself. The elect church is saved that she may
save, cleansed that she may cleanse, blessed that she may
bless. All the world is the field, and all the members of
the church should work therein for the great Husbandman."

With such an ideal in the heart of their pastor,
no wonder the young men of his church go out to
sing in the alleys, and to gather, in some " large
upper room," congregations of London's poorl

330 Concluding Thoughts.

BY raoraitoK w. c Wilkinson, n,^*

" VrOU are an American!'* These were the very
* first words ever addressed by Mr. Spurgeon
to me. It was thirty-two years ago. How well I
remember the occasion! The words were uttered
half as affirmative, half as interrogative. I wore a
tell-tale hat, different from the English fashion.

Fresh graduate from my seminary studies, and
pastor-elect of a church in New Haven, I had
crossed the Atlantic for a little vacation tour before
beginning work. I carried a letter of introduction
to Mr. Spurgeon from his American publishers.
Having heard him preach one Sunday morning in
Surrey Gardens Music Hall, I sought him after
the services were over, and met him walking with
Mrs. Spurgeon on his arm through a corridor of
the building on his way out into the street. As I
approached him, he frankly and cordially put out
his hand to welcome me, with recognition of my
quality, as at once a stranger and a kinsman, ex-
pressed in the words, *'You are an American!"
That same Sunday, in the late afternoon, at a
prayer-meeting, attended by perhaps a thousand
persons, Mr. Spurgeon as leader recognized the

♦To urgent, repeated requests from the American publishers
ihat he would contribute to this volume something in the way
of reminiscences of his own personal \)bservation of Mr.
Spurgeon, Professor Wilkinson at length responded by writing
the sketch here introduced.

A Platform Incident 331

young American in the throng and called on him
to offer prayer. This illustrates the alertness of
attention and of thought that characterized this
many-sidedly remarkable man.

A far better illustration of the same quality is
furnished in an incident of two or three years
later, in which I was concerned. Health broken,
I was again in England. Our civil war had been
some ten months waging. A missionary meeting,
presided over by Mr. Marshman, son of the cele-
brated missionary of that name, was held in the
Metropolitan Tabernacle, then new. A crowded
audience was present. Mr. Marshman, in his open-
ing address, referred to the " fratricidal " war going
on in the United States, as a reason for diminished
gifts from American Baptists to the cause of mis-
sions, and, therefore, a reason for increased gifts
from English Baptists. My patriotism was sensi-
tive, and I did not like the speaker's adjective,
"fratricidal"; and, besides, I knew a fact that
made the implication of his language seem false.
If I had not been a sick man, there would un-
doubtedly have been a short speech on that occa-
sion not set down in the programme. As it was,
I sent my card to Mr. Spurgeon on the platform,
briefly stating that, in point of fact, the receipts of
the American Baptist Missionary Union were not
diminished from those of the year before, and ask-
ing that this correction of the chairman's implica-
tion be publicly made. I presently felt the flutter
of a responsive oral message undulating toward me
from the platform. Mr. Spurgeon wished to speak

332 Concluding Thoughts.

with me. I obeyed the summons. The chairman
was still speaking, when Mr. Spurgeon said to me:
" You are quite sure of what you here say ?" *• I
have it recent and direct from a responsible Amer-
ican source," 1 said. "The Missionary Union's
receipts are as large this year of the war, as they
were the year before ?" Mr. Spurgeon asked. "The
unquestionable fact," I firmly responded, ventur-
ing to press the claim for a public correction. Mr.
Spurgeon reflected a moment, and then asked:
" But, in anticipation of the war, amid the financial
troubles of the hour, may not the previous year's
receipts have fallen below the average standard ?"
What a bright, vigilant, sagacious question! I
was not able to assure him that his conjecture of
the probable was wrong — for I did not know how
the case stood. Mr. Spurgeon was fairly quit of
the necessity of making an awkward public cor*
rection, and I had to content myself with being
introduced to Mr. Marshman, and giving him my
London address for further communication on the
subject.

Mr. Spurgeon's own speech that evening was the
only example from him of oratory, not preaching,
that I ever heard. It was so consummately good
that I remember thinking what a master of men
that man would be in the arena of popular poli-
tics. For my own part, I have no doubt that
Spurgeon — with his infallible instinct of the average
popular mind, his unsurpassed gift of popular
address, his knack of wide popularity, and, then,
besides these things, his statesman-like capacity of

A Book Criticism. 333

applying common sense to the administration of
affairs, joined to his thoroughly, typically, English
cast of intellect and of character — would have run
a full even career of rivalry with Mr. Gladstone
himself for leadership in British imperial politics.
Three years ago, I heard Mr. Spurgeon again
after a long interval. At the close of a Sunday
morning service, I went, conducted by a deacon of
the church, to present myself to the pastor. The
reception-room was thronged with people, many
of them Americans paying their respects to a
famous man, known to be glad to give countrymen
of ours the grasp of his hand. To illustrate the
bluff, kind, large heartiness of his manner, I may
report that I heard him say to one of the number
present on this occasion, whom, on introduction,
he recognized as author of some books that he
liked : " Those are magnificent books. You have
the educational bump. You know just what to
say and just what not to say. I have done by
those books what I do not do by many; I have read
them through^ The books referred to were not
religious books, and one observation which Mr.
Spurgeon added about them was peculiarly signi-
ficant coming from him. The author remarked
that he had tried to make his books, while not ex-
pre.«isly religious, still loyal to Jesus Christ. "Yes,
yes, I noted that," said Mr. Spurgeon. "Every
time you got a fair chance, you put in a true
word for Him. And such books do more good than
religious books" There was so much common sense
expressed in this last saying, and so much free*

33 ♦ Concluding Thoughts.

dom from narrowness, so much open-eyed capacity
to see things without the mere preacher's spec*
tacles interposed, and U was said so emphatically,
that I represent the spirit and effect of the remark
by printing it in italics. It exhibits a trait in Mr.
Spurgeon's mental and moral character that those
who have learned him only through his sermons
would not, perhaps, have suspected in him.

The following day I met him for a private inter-
view at an hour appointed. " You are the first
American I ever knew to keep an appointment
punctually," he said briskly, with pleasure ex-
pressed at the exception, rather than disapproval
of the rule, as I presented myself, fortunately, on
the stroke of the clock. If, indeed, my respected
fellow-countrymen have, as Mr, Spurgeon so
strongly implied, been habitually tardy and de-
relict keepers of London appointments, I can easily
attribute it to the uncalculated great distances that
have to be traversed in London in going from one
quarter of the metropolis to another. To tell the
truth, I had earned my own praise for punctuality
from him, by presenting myself impransusy and ac-
tually faint with fasting. I had mistakingly cal-
culated that I might reach the place with time
enough to spare for taking a hasty meal some-
where in the neighborhood before the interview.

We talked a pleasant hour — that is, Mr. Spurgeon
did, I only now and then for an instant changing
my part from that of listener to that of speaker.
I mentioned very briefly the case of a young man
who told me, many years ago, that Mr. Spurgeon,

Curious Coincidences. 335

not long before, had singled him out from the con-
gregation and made him a target for the general
gaze by describing his appearance and the manner
in which he was dressed. The young fellow felt
seriously aggrieved, and I could in no wise persuade
him that' he had mistaken a mere coincidence for
intention on the preacher's part. Afterward, and
this I told Mr. Spurgeon, I met at a dinner-party in
Paris an American gentleman who, when I recited
the young man's story, confirmed it, by saying that
he was present on the occasion, sat near the young
man, heard Mr. Spurgeon describe him to the life,
saw people looking at him ; there could be no mis-
take, he thought. So much for a very curious co-
incidence. For pure coincidence, Mr. Spurgeon
assured me, it was. He never, he said, did such a
thing in his life as to single out one of his hearers
in that way. " Many singular coincidences," he
said, " have come to my knowledge. Once for ex-
ample, drawing the bow at a venture, I said, * There
is a man now here, sitting on the left-hand side of
the house, who came in with a bottle of gin in his
pocket. I proceeded to say what I hoped might do
such a man good. A little while after, a man came
to me, and said: 'How did you know I came into
the church that day with a gin-bottle in my pocket?
So I did, but how did you find it out ? You got me
on the wrong side, though. I was on the right-
hand side of the house, instead of the left.' I smiled
and told him that depended upon how he reckoned.
Right-hana to him would be left-hand to me.
Strange to say, on that very occasion, there was a

33^ Concluding Thoughts.

second man in the audience with a bottle of gin in
his pocket This one sat on the opposite side from
the other, but he reckoned differently, and so he too
was assured in a similar way, when he said I had
placed him wrong. Both men were converted/' Mr.
Spurgeon added. He narrated several other cases
of curious coincidence that had been made known
to him, occurring in the long course of his preach-
ing weekly to those immense congregations of his.

The stress of the " Down-grade " controversy
was on at the time of this interview, and that nat*
urally was one of the main things talked about
Two points chiefly impressed me ; one was the un-
alterable magnanimous sweetness of Mr. Spurgeon's
temper toward those whom he thought radically
wrong, and the other was the unshakableness of
his conviction that he was himself right, not only
in his doctrine, but in his way of asserting his doc-
trine through secession from the Baptist Union.
At the same time, I was sure I could see signs in
him of sincere suffering at heart from the sundering
of old ties. But he suffered and was strong.

During my last visit to London, ending early in
May of the past year (1891), I twice heard Mr.
Spurgeon preach ; but I personally met him only
once, and that for no more than a greeting and a
hand-shake. '' We shall see each other again, I
hope, friend Wilkinson," were the kindly words
with which he then let me go. The good old-fash-
ioned accosting style of " Friend " Wilkinson was a
way he had of expressing the sentiment of comrade-
ship. The state of his health, manifestly feeble^

Estimate of Opponents. 337

forbade my again seeing him in private. Two or
three brief notes from his own hand faithfully an*
swering questions with which I had reluctantly
brought myself to trouble him, revealed the sense
of overburdening labor and care under which he
daily staggered. He was almost foundering with
the very weight of his lading.

It happened to me, during the months of my stay
in London, to be brought more into contact with
those who differed theologically from Mr. Spurgeon
than with those that thought as he did. The testi-
mony, in fact, unconsciously borne, of these oppo-
nents and critics of Mr. Spurgeon's course, to the
overtopping greatness of his character and of his
influence, was to me most impressive. I acquired
from it a quite new, an immensely augmented, esti*
mate and measure of the solitary preeminence of the
man. There was no minister like him, for command*
ing influence in all the three kingdoms — there prob*
ably never has been. Mr. Spurgeon was the one
dissenting minister of Great Britain — ^and there
was no instance comparable afforded by the clergy
of the Church of England— ^whose movements,
whose state of health, whose utterances, formed a
staple topic of news and of comment for the daily
newspapers of the metropolis of the world. It was
the staunch character, standing four-square to all
the winds that blew, almost more than it was the
eloquence and the genius of the man, that explained
his unique position, his unparalleled power. What
other personal breakwater could stem, as he stem*
med,the tremendous current now sweeping theolog*

33^ Concluding Thoughts.

i*

ical thought in Great Britain, no one knows whither,
in the direction of liberalism. Were he right, or
were he wrong, it was nothing: less than sublime to
see him stand, and let their surging charges, break*
ing upon him, foam themselves away.

Something of the pathos of evidently waning
physical strength added itself to the effect of Mr.
Spurgeon's later eloquence. His hair and beard had
grown visibly gray, and he stayed his steps with a
staff, as he slowly descended to his standing-place
on the platform where he preached. Only his
voice seemed almost to have renewed itself from the
fountain of perpetual youth. Of course, it was not
quite what it had been in its prime, but it was won-
derful, incomparable, yet It has left the world
lonely now that it has ceased to be heard ; but its
last accents, how Apostolic they were, how full of
the old gospel which, during forty years of an un«
paralleled ministry, it had successfully commended
to so many I

The •* Down Grade Controversy.**

The famous **Down Grade Controversy ,** to
which Dr. Wilkinson refers in the above, took
place in 1887, when Mr. Spurgeon withdrew from
the Baptist Union, because of what he believed to
be a defection from some of the cardinal doctrines
of evangelical religion on the part of a number of
his brethren, and the toleration of such laxity by the
Union. His reasons for the step, as given in Thi
Sword and The Trowel for August, 1887, were thatf

The Broad School of Dissent. 339

among those connected with what he terms " The
Broad School of Dissent/'

" The Atonement is scouted, the Inspiration of
Scripture is derided, the Holy Spirit is degraded
into an influence, the punishment of sin is turned
into a fiction, and the resurrection into a myth.

" At the back of doctrinal falsehood comes a
decline of spiritual life, evidenced by a taste for
questionable amusements and a weariness of devo-
tional meetings. At a certain meeting of ministers
and church officers, one after another doubted the
value of prayer meetings ; all confessed that they
bad a very small attendance, and several acknowl-
edged without the slightest compunction that they
had given them up.

"As for questionable amusements — time was
when a Nonconformist minister who was known to
attend the playhouse would soon have found him-
self without a church. And justly so ; for no man
can long possess the confidence, even of the most
worldly, who is known to be a haunter of theatres.
Yet, at the present time, it is matter of notoriety
that preachers of no mean repute defend the play-
house, and do so because they have been seen
there."

While not claiming that his brethren of the
Baptist Union were generally open to charges
such as these, he felt that since some against
whom they could be made were members of the

340 Concluding Thoughts.

Union, his only effectual protest was to withdraw.
In his own words :

'' Christian love has its claims, and divisions are
to be shunned as grievous evils, but how far are
we justified in being in confederacy with those who
are departing from the truth? It is a difficult
question to answer so as to keep the balance of the
duties. . . .

" A chasm is opening between the n^en who be-
lieve their Bibles and the men who are prepared
for an advance upon Scripture. Inspiration and
speculation cannot long abide in peace. Com-
promise there can be none. We cannot hold the
inspiration of the word, and yet reject it ; we can-
not believe in the Atonement and deny it; we can-
not hold the doctrine of the fall, and yet talk of the
evolution of spiritual life from human nature ; we
cannot recognize the punishment of the impenitent,
and yet indulge the * larger hope.' One way or the
other we must go. Decision is the virtue of the hour.

" Neither when we have chosen our way can we
keep company with those who go the other way.
There must come with decision for truth a corre-
sponding protest against error. Let those who will
keep the narrow way, keep it, and suffer for their
choice ; but to hope to follow the broad road at
the same time is an absurdity. What communion
hath Christ with Belial ? "

The frank, Christian manliness of these utter-
ances no one can question. Good men have differed
greatly regarding this step: whether so great laxity
did exist to any wide extent, and, even if so.

Exhausting Labors. 34 1

whether Mr. Spurgeon took the wisest way to meet
it. But there has been no difference of opinion as
to the nobility, unselfishness, and perfect candor of
the great preacher.

The Alarming Illness.

On Feb. 8, 1891, Mr. Spurgeon, after three
months' absence, preached in the Tabernacle pul-
pit, with great power, and universal rejoicing — the
vast congregation singing the doxology, " Praise
God from whom all blessings flow." They sung
it, we are told, " with thunderous effect." He pre-
sided at the annual church meeting, on February
17th, when the following statistics were given of
the work centering around the Metropolitan
Tabernacle :

Present Membership of the Church 5.328

33 Mission Stations, with seating capacity for 3,740

27 Sunday-schools, containing Teachers 599

•« «• " •• Scholars 8,ooi

With occasional slight indispositions, Mr. Spur-
geon continued steadily for the next three months
at his g^eat work. On Monday evening. May 4th, he
presided at the prayer meeting " after having spent
the morning in preparing his weekly sermon for
the press, and the afternoon in seeing inquirers.
He asked special prayer for the spiritual services
in which he was to be occupied during the week."
These services were : preaching before the Sunday-
School Union the Annual Sermon to Sunday-
School Teachers, on Tuesday evening, May sth,
Bloomsbury Chapel, where the service was held,

342 Concluding Thoughts.

being crowded to the doors, and '' large numbers
unable to obtain admission " ; on Thursday even-
ingy May 7th, a sermon at the Tabernacle in aid of
the British and Foreign Sailors' Society ; then, on
Friday afternoon, May 8th, a gathering at Hendon
with the President and students of the College,
where " Mr. Spurgeon read and expounded Gen.
xxiv., as illustrative of the Lord's servants who are
sent to seek out the bride of Christ "; after " a tea,"
in the evening, a public meeting for testimony was
held, the subject being ** The Church of Christ, its
headship, its membership, and its position in the
world " ; as two out of three announced speakers
were laid aside by influenza, Mr. Spurgeon bore
the chief burden of this service, also. Of all this
he says, in The Sword and The Trowel for June :

" A drive of two hours there (to Hendon) and two hours
back made the engagement a heavy draught upon time.
Friends will note that all the above meetings were held in
one week, which also included two Sabbath services and the
great communion at the Tabernacle, besides all the regular
home work, correspondence, etc. In addition, the Lord's
day morning sermon had to be revised, and published the
following Thursday; and the sermons to Sunday-school
teachers and sailors were received for revision and duly
attended to. Is it any wonder that the worker gets weary,
and has to beg friends not to impose further burdens on
one who is already terribly overladen ? "

Following this we read :

"On Friday evening, May 15th, Mr. Spurgeon spoke at the
Presbyterian Missionary meeting at Exeter Hall. It was a
time of peculiar bodilv weakness, and of special spiritual

Stricken Down. 343

stren^h. God bless our friends who so kindly received the
message and the messenger ! "

The next intelligence is that:

''On Sunday evening May 17th, Mr. Spurgeon could not
preach, and the doctor found him laid aside with conges-
tion of the lungs and other matters, which forbid his quit-
ting his chamber for some little time to come. ' My times
are in thy hand.' We would be always preaching ; howbe-
it, the Lord thinketh not so."

From this attack, which proved to be of the
dreaded influenza, or la grippe^ Mr. Spurgeon rallied,
though but momentarily. In the July number of
The Sword and The Trowel^ we read:

" On June 7th, A. M., though still weak, he preached at the
Tabernacle. The following day, he went into the country
for rest and change, but unhappily took a chill, which was
followed by gout. At the time of making up these notes,
he is still confined to his bed, and suffering greatly."

Then followed a season of severe and perilous
illness, attended with delirium, during which, at
times, his death was momentarily expected. Of
this, the best account is that found in The Sword
and The Trowel for August, which gives particu-
lars down to July 23d, evidently at first-hand, with
the suggestion and approval of his family and im-
mediate friends :

" At the beginning of July, there appeared to be good
ground for believing that the disease was being subdued,
although our poor patient's pains were very acute; but on the
evening of Saturday July 4th, the delirium which had passed
away for some days returned, and it was evident that a most
serious state of affairs had been reached. From that time,

344 Concluding Thoughts.

Dr. Miller has slept at " Westwood " every night, and Dr.
Kidd has been in consultation with him every morning. At
intervals, a few bright rays of hope have shot through the
dense darkness which has surrounded the sick chamber; but
these have been followed by periods of most painful sus-
pense, in which the precious life has seemed to reach the
very verge of the unseen world. All that medical skill,
patient watching, and careful nursing could do, appeared,
for a while to be of no avail.

" It ought to be stated, however, to the honor of God, that
even when almost the last hope of recovery had to be given
up, those who were most deeply concerned in the issue of
the terrible trial had one source of consolation left. Among
the letters that poured in daily, from all quarters, there were
many from godly men and women who wrote, not merely to
say that they were praying for Mr. Spurgeon's recovery, but
that it had been impressed upon them most powerfully that
this sickness was ' not unto death,' and that the Lord would
raise up his servant even from the very gates of the grave.
This assurance was a g^eat comfort to the weary watchers,
and enabled them, like Abraham with Isaac, to give up the
loved one without reserve to the divine will, ' by faith . . .
accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the
dead/

** In such a struggle between life and death, hope and fear
alternate with sorrowful frequency. Sometimes the morn-
ing has brought manifest improvement which has not been
maintained during the day. On other occasions, the night
has closed in with the most gloomy forebodings (not for Mr.
Spurgeon: for him to depart and to be with Christ would be
far better, yet many feel that it is needful for them that he
should for a while abide in the flesh). When the morning
has come all has been changed, and gladness has taken the
place of sadness. It was so on July i6th and 17th. On the
Thursday afternoon and evening, the bulletins had been

A World's Sorrow. 345

truly alarming; but on the Friday morning a slight improve*
ment was reported : this was confirmed in the afternoon and
again on the following day, and also on the Sabbath ; but
alas ! even the sacred hours of the Lord's day were invaded
by the dreaded delirium, and day after day, the most trying
suspense continued. At the time of writing these " Notes,"
there appear to be some signs of slight improvement : but
the dear sufferer's condition remains exceedingly critical." ,

A World's Sorrow and Prayer.

The copy of the magazine quoted above contains
an added note, concluding with a few touching
words dictated by Mrs. Spurgeon :

" A whole mumber of The Sward and The TrowelviOMXd
scarcely suffice for an adequate acknowledgment of the teU"
grams, letters, and messages, and resolutions of sympathy
that have been received by Mrs. Spurgeon from all parts of
the world. . . . Mrs. Spurgeon cannot express the deep
gratitude that she feels to all who have shown their sympa-
thy with her in this season of indescribable trial. In her
weak state, the labor of opening and reading so many
extra letters has been a heavy burden; but it has been also
a great blessing. She has found it to be quite a means of
grace to be brought into communication with so large a
number of the Lord's praying and believing children."

The following correspondence between England's
foremost statesman and foremost preacher, when
the one was sorrowing for the death of his son and
the other seemed passing into the shadow of death,
is of deep and tender interest.

Mrs. Spurgeon received the following letter from
Mr. Gladstone:

346 Concluding Thoughts.

•• Gorton, LowBgroPT,

«* My dear MADAM^In my own home, darkened at tbe
present time, I have read with sad interest daily ao->
counts of Mr. Spurgeon's illness, and I cannot help convey*
ing to you the earnest assurance of my sympathy with you
and with him, and of my cordial admiration, not only of his
splendid powers, but still more of his devoted and unfailing
character. May I humbly commend you and him, in all
contingencies, to the infinite stores of the Divine love and
mercy, and subscribe myself, my dear Madam, faithfully
yours.

" W. E. Gladstone.

*»

Mrs. Spurgcon sent the following reply, the
postscript being in her husband's handwriting:
w Westwood, Upper Norwood,

" July 18, 1891.

"Dear Mr. Gladstone — ^Your words of sympathy
have a special significance and tenderness coming from one
who has just passed through the deep waters which seem
now to threaten me. I thank you warmly for your expres-
sion of regard for my beloved husband, and with all my
heart I pray that the consolations of God may abound to-
wards you, even as they do to me. Although we cannot
yet consider the dear patient out of danger, the doctors
have to-day issued a somewhat more hopeful bulletin. I
feel it is an honor to be allowed to say that I shall ever be

your grateful friend,

(Signed) " S. Spurgeon."

** P. S. — ^Yours is a word of love such as those only write
who have been into the King's country, and have seen much
of His face. My heart's love to you. — C. H. Spurgeon."

Of these letters, The National Baptist of July 23,
iS9i» fitly says;

Spurgeon and Gladstone. 347

" This loving^ correspondence between two such noble and
great Christian men has few parallels ; it is all the morv
noticeable since, a few years ago, when Mr. Gladstone an*
nounced his policy as to Home Rule» Mr. Spurgeon declared
himself distinctly against it, though (as he said to the writer)
' it was hard to oppose one who had been a dear personal
friend/ The world is rich in goodness so long as it has two
such men as Gladstone and Spurgeon/'

The Speaker (London) a very able political
weekly, strongly Gladstonian in its spirit, on July
i8thy at a time when little or no hope was enter-
tained for the recovery of Mr. Spurgeon, said :

" Mr. Spurgeon still lives; but his life seems to be hanging
by a thread, and even before these words appear in print,
the thread may have been snapped. How many people, we
wonder, are fully conscious of the loss which the breaking
of the golden cord will inflict upon London and the world ?
The time has long since passed when it was fashionable to
deride this master of the English language in its noblest
form, this preacher whose tenets were of a former day,
whose creed, as fervid as it was narrow, seemed little likely
to lay- hold of the sympathies of a generation like the pres*
cnt. There was a time when Mr. Spurgeon was, on the
whole, the best-abused person in England; when orthodox
church circles regarded him with horror as the representa-
tive of everything that was odious to the members of an
Established Church; when men of light and leading sneered
at him as the typical Philistine, and when g^eat essayists, in
weekly reviews, regarded him as a butt provided for the
special purpose of enabling them to sharpen their small wits
on him. Long ago, Mr. Spurgeon lived down all the bigotry,
the folly, and the flippancy of which he was for so many
years the mark. People came at last to see that even if
they could not share his creed, they could admire the fervor

34^ Concluding Thoughts.

d his teal» the parity of his life, and. the large-hearted
charity which he showed in every matter that did not apper*
tain to dogma.

''And even our men of light and leading, after years of
scofling at his pulpit style, awoke to a perception of the fact
that, in Mr. Spurgeon, England had one of those bom ora«
tors of whom this generation has seen only two, to wit, him*
self and Mr. Bright. Gifted with splendid common sense,
with a genuine humor, with a large-hearted love for his fel-
low-creatures, which no narrowness of creed could stifle or
distort, and with those unequalled powers as a preacher,
which enabled him for nearly forty years to sway the largest
congregation in the world, Mr. Spurgeon has undoubtedly
been a figure of real importance, as well as real interest, in
the community in which he dwelt • • • Well tried by
time, which tries all things, Mr. Spurgeon's life and char*
acter have been shown to be of that pure gold against which
the sharp edge of ridicule and satire must ever be turned in
vain* In parting from him, we part from one who was both
great and good; and whatever differences on points of the-
ology may separate us from him, there are few among us
who do not feel that when he dies» the world will be poorer
for his loss."

The Spiitatar of London, about the same time,
published a most interesting letter, showing the
esteem in which Mr. Spurgeon b held among many
in the Church of England, and ending with a char-
acteristic incident:

** May I conclude by giving the following anecdote which
was related to me by an enthusiastic young Liberal ? After
one of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons, this young man went into
the vestry to thank the preacher for his faithful discourse^
and, wandering away a little from the matter in hand, refer-
led to the ritualistic party in the Church of England, ending

A Catholic Spirit. 349

a somewhat severe denunciation of their views by saying,

* Surely you must have a feeling of strong indignation against

such teachers, and see with fear the harm they are doing/

Mr. Spurgeon answered : * No, not entirely so ; they have

stirred up much earnest work, and we all may take a lesson

from their self-sacrificing and devoted lives/ This answer

is, I thinky proof of a truly catholic spirit.

** I am, sir, etc

-A. G. T.-

This Is surely beautiful, as showing how one so
uncompromising in doctrine, and ready so earnestly
to " contend/' on occasion, for " the faith once de-
livered to the saints" can maintain through and
under all, a spirit of deep and tender Christian
kindness. This spirit has drawn to him the love
of those wholly outside the Christian fold, as shown
by the following remarkable and touching letter
addressed to Mrs. Spurgeon:

''Office op the Chief Rabbi,
16 FiNSBURY Square* London,

^ My Dear Madame— Pray be assured that» although
owing to my absorbing official duties I have not called to
inquire personally, I have been following the bulletins touch*
ing the health of your dear husband with deepest interest,
and with earnest prayer to our common Father mat his pre-
cious life may be spared for yet many years. I was delighted
when the reports on Saturday were more reassuring, and 1
am deeply grieved to learn this morning that this improve-
ment has not been maintained. May the Father of all flesh
sustain the patient sufferer on his bed of languishing; may
It please him to restore him to health and strength ; may he

350 Concluding Thoughts.

sustain yoo and yours during^ the period of triaL With
CYery good wish for Mr. Spurgeon, yours sincerely,

- N. Adler. Chief Rabbl.-

Indeed, the world was waiting around the sick-
bed of the great, good man in his long approach
to death. Probably never before did such a volume
of prayer encircle a single sufferer, and plead for
one man's life. Rev. N. W. Miner writes from
London to the Chicago Standard under date of
July 23, 1891:

^ Meetings for prayer have been held daily in the g^eat
Tabernacle ; sometimes as many as three thousand are in
attendance; and all over the country earnest and united
prayers are offered up, that God would spare the life of His
honored servant. Bulletins in regard to his condition are
issued twice a day, which are read the first thing in
the papers. Letters of sympathy and telegrams come
to Mr. Spurgeon from all parts of the country. The
Prince of Wales has requested that he might be in-
formed daily of Mr. Spurgeon's condition. The most dis-
tinguished persons in London visit Mrs. Spurgeon to inquire
after her husband, or send messages of sympathy. Among
those who have called are the Bishop of London, and several
bishops from different parts of Great Britain, members of
Parliament, and other high officials.

" The sickness of Mr. Spurgeon has awakened more in-
terest, and has called forth a wider and more pervading
sympathy than could have been awakened by any other in-
dividual in England. I believe he is better known and more
dearly beloved than any other living man."

Then came the surprising and delightful news
of the g^eat preacher's partial recovery. The acute

symptoms yielded, and he came out from the im«

Partial Recovery. 351

mediate shadow of death. Early in September he
was able to be taken out of doors in a carriage. It
was mentioned that "When he went out for his
first drive, he was taken to Westminster. During
the afternoon, he was seen to alight from his car-
riage, and, after tottering along between two sup-
porters, he leaned upon the parapet of Westminster
Bridge, and watched with evident interest the new
mission steamer for the Congo, the 'Good will,'
then on the river. A few minutes later, he was
again led to his carriage, and driven back to his
residence." Even at such a time, " in weariness and
painfulness," just risen from what was almost the
bed of death, his recreation was to view something
destined to help extend the kingdom of Christ in
a far, dark land.

Then, about October ist, a welcome letter from
his own hand appeared in The Sword and The
Trowel, in which he said : *

" I am unable to send a personal letter of thanks to the
thousands of friends of all ranks and religions who wrote
sympathetic letters to Mrs. Spurgeon and to myself during
the dark days of my illness ; but I beg in the best manner
possible to me to return my hearty thanks to them all. To
my dear sorrowing wife, the kind words from all quarters
were, by God's blessing, an unutterable consolation. I was
too ill to know much about the matter ; but, now I am recov-
ering, the reading of these generous expressions fills my
eyes with tears, my mind with astonishment, and my heart
with gratitude.

* With the exception of the words to me, the italics are the
editor's. In a few later instances, the same liberty has been
taken of giving emphasis to passages now especially significant

352 Concluding Thoughts.

" Surely there is a unity deep down in the church of God
and on fit occasions it shows itself ; that I should furnish
such an occasion overwhelms me. Sonu of tJuse affectum-
aU expressions from persons ecclesiastically divided from
me, are as fervent c^s if we agreed on every pointy and are
vastly more true and precious than if that were the case.
Brethren and sisters in Christ, the Lord recompense upon
each of you a hundredfold your tender consideration of one
who had no hold upon you but his g^eat affliction !

" To those who are not of the Christian faith, I cannot
but feel a singular tenderness when I read not only their
respectful enquiries, but their generous sentiments towards
me. It is astonishing to me that I should have so warm a
place in their esteem, and I trust I may do nothing which
will prove me unworthy of it.

** I have also the happy task of thanking the countless
friends who did not write to me, but lifted up their hearts in
prayer on my behalf. / have been saved from death by
prayer. In very many instances, there has been an assured
faith with the prayer, and this has been the certain token
of prevalence with God. To hear that friends unknown to
me spent whole nights in supplication for me, and that
multitudes of churches presented special intercession, made
me very happy, and caused me to say at the very worst,
'I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the
Lord.'

" That every one of those who thought of me so lovingly
may thus be remembered by the Great Father in any future
hour of sorrow, is my fervent prayer** C. H. S.

At the same time, there was much to check
extravagant hopes of final recovery. The Rev. J.
A. Spurgeon, of Croydon stated that his brother
waft not only suffering severely from the old disease,
the root of which still remained, but that, in

Dr. Pier son at the Tabernacle. 353

addition, he suffered very much from his heart.
Anxiety was felt for some days of warm, sunny
weather during which he might repair to the sea-
side and there remain until a favorable opportunity
should present itself for a passage across the
channel en route to Mentone.

A little later, in reply to words of friendliness
expressed towards him by the Sussex School Union
Conference, Mr. Spurgeon wrote as follows:

"Queen's Hotel,"

''October^, 1891.
" Dear Sir — I was much cheered by the kindly expres-
sion of the meeting over which you presided last night. It
Is so sweet to live in the hearts of workers among the young^
that even a sickness that gives me the assurance that I do
so, has a bright side to it. Go on with your holy service,
and may our Lord give you many tokens of His approval.
My secretary has gone back to attend to home work, and I
regret that I was too near my bed last night to sit down
and answer your note there and then. The invalid cannot
do what he would. Two remarkable men have just passed
away through a chill, but dear fellow-Christians seem
resolved by the warmth of their love to allow me no risk of
a chilled heart. I thank you and every individual in the
meeting. God bless all your Sunday-schools. I beg a con-
tinued interest in your prayers for a wasting disease upon
me. I have not half escaped from its grasp.

"Yours very heartily,

" C. H. Spurgeon."

Dr. Pierson at the Tabernacle.

Among the memorable leadings of Providence
which have attended Mr. Spurgeon's career, is that
which permitted him, just in this emergency, to

354 Concluding Thoughts.

secure as preacher at the Metropolitan Tabernacle,
Rev. A. T. Pierson, D. D., of Philadelphia, the able
editor of the Missionary Review of the World. Mr.
Spurgeon's own account of the matter is substan-
tially as follows :

" Early in August, the Pastor remembered that the good
doctor had kindly offered to come to London at any time
when his services might be required, so he directed his
secretary to make inquiries as to. his address, probable en-
gagements, etc. The very next morning a loving letter
arrived, and among other hopeful words were the follow-
ing : ' If by coming across the sea I could now serve you, I
would cheerfully do all in my power.' To this a reply was
at once sent, and after conference and special prayer on
both sides of the sea, the cable brought to Mr. Spurgeon
the message : ' Acts xvi, 9, 10.' The passage reads : * And
a vision appeared to Paul in the night : There stood a man
of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into
Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the
gospel unto them.' October 25th was fixed as the date of
Dr. Pierson's first services at the Tabernacle."

The spirit of true Christian unity which called
a Presbyterian preacher to a Baptist pulpit, an
American to the heart of London, has been honored
by Dr. Pierson's success in that difficult field, the
church and congregation being held, and the
great Tabernacle filled, at his services, Sunday
after Sunday.

The longed-for opportunity for travel came.
" Baron Rothchild's private saloon-carriage was
placed at Mr. Spurgeon*s service to travel in

The Journey to Mentone. 355

throughout France to Mentone." He enjoyed the
sea-voyage from Dover to Calais on Monday, Oct
26th, and travelled on Oct. 27th from Calais to
Marseilles, proceeding from thence to Mentone.
He was accompanied by Mrs. Spurgeon, his brother
Rev. James Spurgeon, and Mrs. James Spurgeon,
his private secretary (Rev. J. Harrald), and by
some of the Metropolitan Tabernacle deacons.
The " Doxology " was sung by those assembled, as
he left Hearne Hill Station, London.

November 7th, still apparently improving in
health, he wrote from Mentone :

" I am far away in body, but not in spirit. I am a sick
man physically, but in heart I am strong in the Lord. A
great waste of life-force still weakens me ; but it is not so
great as it was. It is a great trial to be unable to preach in
the pulpit, but it is no small comfort to be able to preach
through the press. By the aid of friends, the discourses
which I have delivered in former times have been piloted
through the press in a masterly manner, and would be forth-
coming for several years even if I were taken home to God;
for hundreds of manuscripts are in my publishers' stores,
and so I shall live and speak long after I am dead. Will
each kind reader do me the g^eat service of increasing my
congregation by increasing the circulation of these sermons?
The loan of a copy, or a kindly word, may win me another
reader, to whom the message maybe life, or light, or liberty.
I earnestly desire a still wider audience. If I could not my-
self preach, I think that the next best thing would be to
spread the sermons of one whose words were useful to my
own heart. Please do not merely think of fulfilling my dc«
sire ; but DO IT."

Again he writes on November 3i8t:

356 Concluding Thoughts.

** This mominf I read in Tk^ Tima that ' Mr. Spurgeon
U rapidly recovering.' These words exactly describe what
I am n0i doing. The symptoms are the same as when I
was at home. I am tossed up and down upon the waves of
my disease and what is thought progress to-day is gone
to-morrow. I have seasons of utter prostration. Always
weak, it seems at times that I have no strength whatever,
and must altogether collapse. The result of the doctor's
recent examination has been disappointing. He did not
feel pleased about a certain ' murmur/ which was by no
means less than when I was at home. I had hoped that
this was reduced to the imperceptible, but it was not so. By
another test it was soon apparent that the disease itself was
not changed from what it was m Norwood, or, if any change
was manifest, it was for the worse. The leakage of life-
power was not stopped. I shall recover, for this is the tenor
of the prayers which our God has so far answered ; but
there are no traces or signs of anything rapid about my
condition. Empirically, any advance I make is of the
slowest of all slow thitigs^ I write this at once, to prevent
disappointment of sanguine friends. I know not why I
should be the object of so much tender sympathy, but as I
am thus privileged I would have a sensitive regard for the
feelings of such benefactors and warn them against state-
ments for which there is no basis in truth. Their friend
remains feeble, and has no hasty recovery to expect Please
continue fervent prayers on my behalf. Have great patience.
Relieve me of anxiety as to the institutions; and praise God
for what He has already done."

The December number of The Sword and The
Trowel contains a preface by Mr. Spurgeon, in
which he thus states some of the lessons which he
himself read in the long trial :

** We may not always expect to see the why awl where'

Less(ms of the Tried. 357

fore of the Lord's dealinfs; bat. In this case, certain points
are clear enouglu

** Thi work which cenira at thi Metropolitan TademacU
has been tested. It has been assumed by many that the
death of the pastor would be fatal to the work which he has
inaugurated. This has been shown to be a mere assump-
tion. Like Isaac, he was ' as good as dead/ but the insti-
tutions were maintained, and the preaching of the Word
was sustained by divers men of God, till at last the man
(Rev. Dr. A. T. Pierson) came who has filled the great
house, and moved the heart of the crowd by his noble wit-
ness for the truth. The members have not forsaken the
church, and the workers have not stayed theii hand. Such
an experience is reassuring, and is a practical rehearsal of
what may be done on another day, when he, who has again
and again been drawn out of the waters of death, shall in
very deed go up the mount, and fall asleep, and no more
lead the flock through the wilderness.

" Equally memorable has been the latent Christian love
which has been made manifest, . . •

Had the sufferer been an Episcopalian, the clergy could
not have been more solicitious ; had he been a Presbyterian,
Wesleyan, or Independent, members of those bodies could
not have been more loving. All sorts of Baptists have been
more than brotherly. . . . Twenty years ago, one who
had prophesied that a dissenting minister would have been
lovingly mentioned in St. Paul's Cathedral, and in numerous
Episcopal churches would h< t been reckoned among mad-
men ; yet the fact is sure. Surely there is a real andgrow*
ing unity among those who are spiritual^ when even
towards one who has been very outspoken concerning relig^
ious differences such brotherly kindness has been shown.
May it be an omen of a time wherein the true union of all
who are in Christ Jesus will make similar outbursts of
sympathy to be of ordinary occuitence ! "

35^ Concluding Thoughts.

On December 5th, he writes:

^ The last month of the year is upon us, and mercy, like a
river, continues to flow side by side with the pathway of our
lives. I hope I am climbing the hill of returning strength.
As yet I have hardly crept upward enough to be quite sure
that I am, on the whole, a little above where I was when I
left home. My publishers wished to begin the year with a
portrait, and I submitted to be photographed, but the result
is too painful. I do not think that any of my friends would
wish to see the picture twice. To those who meet me I do
not appear much the worse for wear ; but when I sit down
before the camera, the unflattering sun puts down details
of countenance which it would not be pleasing to remember.
I mention this that I may ask the continuance of the prayers
of the sermon-readers. I am anxious to be soon in my
pulpit, or at least to be making progress towards fitness
for it. Meanwhile, may our Lord use these sermons for the
good of His Church and cause."

Again, on December 12 th, appeared another letter,
still full of thought for others :

•* Beloved readers of my sermons will greatly oblige me
if they will place their copies in the way of persons for whose
salvation they are pleading with God. It may be that the
Lord will use the discourses to the end they so much desire.
My silent Sabbaths breed in me a great hunger for the sal-
vation of those to whom I can only speak through the press.
Oh, that my Lord would honor me by making me fruitful in
this winter of my weakness ! I have a word for this season,
which I must not forget. Christmas is near. Our orphan
children must have their festival, though I cannot have the
joy of presiding at it. Will my kind friends remember my
family of Ave hundred children and keep up the general
funds and add some little treat for the boys and girls ? I
am sending a Christmas present to all the subscribers whose

The Last Christmas. 359

— <^— — ^>Mi— — »— ^™^^ ■■■III I I I—— I mm^mmm^t^m^^mam^mm^^^^i^^^m^m^tm

names we have on our list, but as we may miss some, let them
not feel that they are left out. I invite their thoughtful con*
sideration to the matter. Direct to the secretary, Stockwell
Orphanage, Clapham Road, London, and thus gratify your
old friend, C. H. Spurgeon."

As Christmas drew near, December 24th, he wrote
to his flock at the Tabernacle :

•' Though I cannot be present to wish you the blessings
of the season, I would say from my heart, * I wish you a most
happy Christmas ! ' Upon your family gatherings may the
best of blessings rest ! May all your children be the Lord's,
children, and thus may your union in the bonds of the flesh
be made eternal by the bonds of the Spirit ! Joy be with
you, yet let it be the joy in the Lord. I think I can fairly
say I am better. Whether or no the disease is disappearing
I cannot say, though I fear there is not much difference, but
in general health I must be improved, or else my feelings
are sheer delusions. At any rate, I am very hopeful and
praiseful, and I wish I could stand up and give out Ps. ciii."

In Wi^. Metropolitan Pulpit oi Dec. 31, 1891, Mr.
Spurgeon published a New Year's sermon, "In-
tended for Reading, on Lord's Day, Jan. 3, 1892,"
on the text found in Psalm cxviii., 17, 18 : "I shall
not die, but live, and declare the works of the
Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore ; but he
hath not given me over unto death." The sermon
is entitled, "Gratitude for Deliverance from the
Grave," and an introductory note states that it
was preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, " in
connection with the dedication of the Jubilee
House, which commemorated the fiftieth year of
a life often threatened by grievous sickness." Mr.
Spurgeon adds a note at the close of the sermoiv

360 Concluding Thoughts.

which reads like an Old Testament Psalm, yet,
with the firm, clear tone of a Pauline epistle, and
which may now be termed his dying Declaration
of Faith. He says :

" This sermon begins a new volume ; in fact, ft commences
Vol. XXXVIII of Thi Metropolitan TabemacU Pulpit. I
have, myself, selected it, and prepared it for the press, be-
cause it is most suitable as my own personal testimony at
the present moment. The subject is even more my own
this day than it was seven and a half years ago; for I have
been in deeper waters, and nearer to the mouth of the grave.
With my whole soul I praise delivering grace. To the Lord
God, the God of Israel, I consecrate myself anew. For the
covenant of grace, for the revelation of infallible truth in
the .Bible, lor the atonement by blood, and the immutable
love of the ever-blessed Three-in-One, I am a witness ; and
more and more would I abide faithful to the Gospel of the
grace of God. I see each day more reasons for faith, and
fewer excuses for doubt. Those who will, may ship their
anchors, and be drifted about by the current of the age ; but
I would sing, ' My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed ;
I will sing, and give praise.'

** The whole passage, Ps. cxviii, 13-18, is inscribed upon a
marble slab on the Jubilee House at the back of the Taber-
nacle, and I am told that many went to read it while I lay in
the greatest peril through sore sickness, and were comforted
thereby. When the Lord permits me to return, I must raise
yet another memorial to his praise."

Early in the New Year, in regard to one of these
carefully "piloted" sermons, "Is God In The
Camp ? " Mr. Spurgeon wrote the following, full of
the ringing heartiness of his old-time pulpit utter*
ances :

*« Belotbp FRiKKDS-*The one want of the Chuith te

Th$ New Year. 361

these times is indicated by the title of this sermon. The
presence of God in saving power in the church will put an
end to the present plague of infidelity. Men will not doubt
His Word when they feel His Spirit It will be the only
security for the success of missionary effort. If God be with
His people, they will soon see crowds converted and added
to the church. For a thousand reasons, we need that
Jehovah should come into the camp, as aforetime he visited
and delivered His people from bondage in Egypt Could
we not all unite in prayer for this as fervently as all united
in prayer for my life ? It is a far greater and more neces*
sary subject for intercession and the Lord will not be slow
to hear us. Come to Thy church* O Lord, in fullness ol
power to save ! If the Great Advent is not yet, indulge us
with outpourings of grace in times of refreshing ! Oh, that
all Christendom would take up this pleading and eonjtittueit
until the answer came !

*' Receive, dear readers, my hearty salutations. Personally*
I scarcely make progress during this broken weather; but
the doctor says I hold my own, and that is more than he
could have expected. Whether I live or die, I would say^
in the words of Israel to Joseph, ' God shall be with yov.*

** Yours ever heartily,

"^ C H. SPUKOIOir.*

** MSNTONB, Jdnuafy 9, 189a."

The Metropolitan Tabernacle of January sx, 1899^
published the following letter from the great
preacher, dated only two weeks before his death.
It is touching to see the play of his genial humor
at such a time, and impressive to observe how hit
thoughts go out from himself, to take in nations^
and to sympathize with all other sufferers. He
writes:

•* Mt DlAa RiADEli*— Your weeUy prtecher Is stfll

362 Concluding Thoughts.

weakly ; but, though his progress towards strength is slow,
it has been steadily maintained during the late tr3ring
weather. When we consider how many have died, your
chaplain is very grateful to be alive, to be able to send forth
his usual discourse from the press, and to be, as he hopes,
half an inch nearer to his pulpit. Happy will he count him-
self when he is able to preach with the living voice.

" Would it not be well for all the churches to hold special
meetings for prayer concerning the. deadly scourge of influ-
enza ? The suggestion has, no doubt, been made by others ;
but I venture to press it upon Christians of all denomina-
tions that they may, in turn, urge all their pastors to summon
such meetings. Our nation is fast learning to forget God.
In too many instances, ministers of religion have propagated
doubt, and the result is a general hardening of the popular
feeling, and a greatly increased neglect of public worship.
It is written * When thy judgments are in the earth, the
inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.* Let us,
who believe in inspired Scripture, unite our prayer that it
may be even so. With a court and a nation in deepest
mourning, it is a time to cry mightily unto the Lord.

**I have been able again to revise a sermon without
assistance. It is upon Psalm cv. 37 ; and, if the Lord will,
it will be published next week.
** Yours, in deep sympathy with all the sick and the bereav ed

"C. H. Spurgeon."

••Mentone, January 17, 1892."

But the hopes of final recovery were not to be
fulfilled, and, in the closing hour of January's last
Sabbathy he whose every Sabbath for forty years
had been a day of impassioned pleading with man,
and of triumphant worship of God, entered on the
eternal Sabbath of Heaven.

As regards the seemingly unanswered prayers

The Glorious Deliverance, 363

for his final recovery, none would say more sub-
missively and decidedly than he himself, that every
true prayer has for its proviso ** if it be possible —
nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." He
did not look upon it as a calamity to die. In his
sermon, near the close of the year 1890, on " The
Man Who Shall Never See Death," he speaks as
fellows :

"Now we turn to the delightful part of our subject,
namely, THE GLORIOUS DELIVERANCE, which our
Lord here promises : ' He shall never see death/ Our Lord
did not mean that he shall never die, for he died himself-,
and his followers, in long procession, have descended to the
grave. Some brethren are cheered by the belief that they
shall live until the Lord comes ; and, therefore, they shall
not sleep but shall only be changed. The hope of our Lord's
appearing is a very blessed one, come when He may ; but f
do not conceive that to be alive at His coming is any great
object of desire. Is there any great preference in being
changed beyond that of dying ? Do we not read that, * We
which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord
shall not prevent them which are asleep ? ' This is a g^eat
truth. Throughout eternity, if I die, I shall be able to say,
I had actual fellowship with Christ in the article of death,
and in descent into the grave, which those happy saints who
will survive can never know. It is no matter of doctrine,
but yet, if one might have a choice in the matter, it might
be gain to die."

Beside this thought of the blessedness of dying,
we may well place the great preacher's view of the
preacher's work in the immortal life:*

" A long life will only suffice us to skirt the shores of thk

* ''The Greatest Fight in the World," p. ai«

364 Concluding Thtntghis.

great continent of light. In the forty years of my own
ministry I have only touched the hem of the garment of
dirine truth ; but what virtue has flowed out of it I The
word is like its Author, infinite, immeasurable, without end.
If you were ordained to be a preacher throughout eternity,
you would have before you a theme equal to everlasting
demands. Brothers, shall we each have a pulpit some-
where amidst the spheres ? Shall we have a parish of mil-
lions of leagues ? Shall we have voices so strengthened as
to reach attentive constellations ? ShaU we be witnesses
for the Lord of grace to myriads of worlds which will be
woader^truck when they hear of the incarnate God ? Shall
we be surrounded by pure intelligences, enquiring and
searching into the mystery of God manifest in the flesh ?
Will the unfallen worlds desire to be instructed in the
glorious Gospel of the blessed God ? and will each one of
us have his own tale to tell of our experience of infinite
love ? I think so, since the Lord has saved us ' to the
intent that now unto the principalities and powers in
heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold
wisdom of God.' If such be the case, our Bible will suffice
for ages to come for new themes every morning, and for
fresh songs and discourses world without end."

Spurgeon dead ! How g^and a life is ended, of
a man who could afford to die ! Out from his life of
pain, from the pulpit which he has filled with more
than kingly power, as ambassador for the King of
kings, from his heart-touching, heart-filling chari-
ties, surrounded by the tearful intercessions of the
host he has blessed in every land, leaving monu-
ments more enduring than marble or bronze, he
ascends to his Father and our Father, to his God
mod our God.

LAST SCENES AND LAST SERMONS

4«

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.

** Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous*
ness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at
that day: and not to me only, but unto all them alio that love
bif appearing."— 2 Tim., iv., 7, 8.

XIII.

LAST SCENES AND LAST SERMONS.

'T'HE funeral pageant was one of the most
•■' remarkable that London ever saw. There
was no royal pomp, no military display — nothing
to appeal to idle curiosity or traditional reverence
for rank and title. Yet for four miles mourning
crowds lined the way, in addition to the vast num-
bers that moved in the procession.

All along the way, all shops and warehouses
were closed, all flags at half-mast. More than
sixty religious bodies were represented in the
procession. Those of the most diverse creed and
rank joined in the common sorrow. The Prince
and Princess of Wales sent despatches of sympa-'
thy, the dwellers in humble homes closed their
blinds in token of grief, and followed on foot in
the sorrowing throng ; delegates of the Salvation
Army occupied a carriage in the procession, and
the Bishop of Rochester, of the Church of Eng.
land, pronounced the benediction at the grave.

In life and in death, this one man seems to have
touched alike the high and the lowly, awakening
anew the sense of our common humanity, our

368 f Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

common dependence upon the one God» the uni-
versal need of the sympathy and help of the one
Redeemer for whom he so mightily pleaded. The
fuller accounts of the closing scenes, carry us
back to the last week in January^ when unfavor-
able news began to come from Mentone, and it
was learned that Mr. Spurgeon's sickness had
assumed very much the form which it had in the
tad days of the last summer.

As the tidings through the week continued
more unfavorable, those who loved him were
drawn to the Tabernacle even on week-days, and in
the early morning. A touching account of some
of these services is given in the Landim Daily
ChronicU of February ist, which says :

" Friday's news was anything but reassuring^, and hence
it was that a small body of worshippers, some on their way
to daily toil, proceeded to the Lecture Hall at the rear of
the Tabernacle so early as half-past seven on Saturday
morning, almost before the dav had fairly dawned They
were met by Mr. Dunn, one of the deacons, who had no
further information beyond that contained in the morning
papers. Heartfelt prayer was then offered up, first by one
and then by another, that God in His mercy would raise
the stricken pastor from his bed of pain, and allow him to
continue the work in which his soul delighted. It was a
pathetic little meeting in the grey light of the early mom-
mg, but those who were present were earnest and sincere —
a remark which will not apply to many gatherings of a more
pretentious character.

•* It was half-past eight when the meeting dispersed ; and
three hours and a half later a similar gathering was held,
Mr. Dunn again presiding. It commenced with the singing
of the hymn. ' Great is the Lord our Oo^* Only two verses,
however, for the chief business was to pray. And pray they
did— not perhaps in the ornate and rounded periods of the
ecclesiastic, but in sound and fervid language, coming

Praying Bands m London. 369

straight from the heart. Then Mr. Dunn said that up to
that time they had no means of knowing their pastor's pres-
ent condition, but they expected news every moment. Their
pastor (continued Mr. Dunn) would be the last man in the
world to claim any credit to himself. He thought he could
hear him saying, • Speak not of C. H. S. but of I. H. S. —
Jesu Hominum Salvator * — but they could not be unmindful
of the many who had need to cry for his restoration to
health. What a friend the poor would lose if Mr. Spurgeon
were called away ! In the last letter he (Mr. Dunn) re-
ceived from him, Mr. Spurgeon said, ' Do what you can for
my poor people. Do not let them want anything. Let them
be well attended. Speak to the deacons about it, and do all
you can to help those in need.' Then came more prayers
until one o'clock had sounded.

" Three in the afternoon saw another gathering, at which
the same deep and earnest supplications ascended; and
then, when the shades of evening had fallen, came the
largest meeting of the day, the usual Saturday evening
gatnering for prayer. But there was little news— only the
morning bulletin, which said that the pastor had passed a
restless night, and that there was no improvement in his
condition. Mr. Graham and other Church officers were
present, and the time was spent in prayer — prayer for the
pastor, prayer for those who are suffering by reason of the
dreadful scourge which is now upon the land, and which
had taken away the hieh and mighty ones of Uie earth as
well as the humble and lowly."

The last Sabbath of January began with the
praying assembly in the early morning, and at the
usual hour a great congregation thronged the
Tabernacle for the morning service, all hearts
reaching across sea and land to the bedside of
their pastor, even then dying far away. No cer-
tain intelligence could then be given, but a letter
from Mr. Harrald, Mr. Spurgeon's secretary, was
read to the assembly, in which was included a mes-
sage from Mrs. Spurgeon expressing her gratitude
to the church and congregation " for their afifec-

370 Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

donate remembrance and tokens of Christian
love."

** Then the Rev. Dr. Pierson, who has himself been suf-
fering, spoke a few words, saying in conclusion, ' Let us
leave our loving pastor in the tender arms of One who loves
him more than we can do, and every drop of whose blood is
precious in His sight. Each of you has thought about your
pastor in his own mind, and before we engage in public
prayer let us spend a few moments in silent prayer.* Then,
in a stillness that could almost be felt, the large congrega-
tion bowed its head in silent supplication, broken only by
the voice of the minister putting into words the general
wish of all. The service was then proceeded with, but over
all there seemed a sense of apprehension, a feeling that at
any moment the worse news might arrive. Just before the
morning service came to an end the bulletin from Mentone
was read to the congregation. ^

" In accordance with the rule which obtains at the Met-
ropolitan Tabernacle, the principal doors are not opened
until fist. minutes prior to the commencement of the service.
Long before half-past six last evening a large crowd of
intending worshippers had assembled at the entrance, and
very soon after the doors were thrown open the immense
building was filled in every part. The Rev. Dr. Pierson
again officiated, but beyond a reference in his general
prayer no allusion was made to the subject which was
uppermost in every one's heart until a later period of the
evening, when the afternoon message from Mentone was
read, deepening the gloom which had been noticeable
throughout the day, and the service was curtailed in order
that a special prayer-meeting of the whole congregation
might be held. This was of an impressive character, and
brought the day's proceedings to a close, still under the
shadow of impending calamity."

Meanwhile, at Mentone, after a very restless night,
Mr. Spurgeon began the day in exceeding weakness,
still able to take a slight quantity of nourishment,
but, as the day wore on, even that became impossi-
ble, and his strength gradually waned, until, at half
past three in the afternoon, he had become unable

^'Asleep in Jesus.** 371

to recognize his watching friends or even the wife
he so tenderly loved. From that time, in quiet
unconsciousness, with no pain, bat with increasing
weakness^ he steadily sank, until, at five minutes
past eleven o'clock at night of January 31st, in the
presence of his wife, his secretary, and two* or
three friends, he " fell asleep in Jesus."

As the telegraph flashed the news to London,
on the Monday morning, the people were pro-
foundly moved. The London Standard^ of Febru-
ary 2d, gfives a touching record of the scenes at
and around the Tabernacle :

" Sympathetic crowds assembled yesterday in front of the
Metropolitan Tabernacle to read and comment upon the
printed copy of the telegram received from Mentone, posted
upon the railings. It was as follows: 'Mentone, 11.50.
Our beloved pastor entered heaven, 11.5, Sunday night. —
Harrald.' The people, especially of the Newington district,
in which Mr. Spurgeon was so well known, spoke regret-
fully of the death of the pastor of the Metropolitan Taberna-
cle. Signs of respect were not wanting in the immediate
neighborhood. In the streets radiating from the Elephant
and Castle shutters were placed upon most of the shop win-
dows, and in the windows of the upper parts of the houses
the blinds were drawn. This was also the case in the busi-
ness lotions of Stockwell ; and in the Clapham Road, near
Wr. Spurgeon 's Orphanage, there was not a private house in
which the blinds were not drawn. Upon the Orphanage
itself the Union Jack was at half-mast ; and it was stated,
upon inquiry, that every person in the institution, from the
master and matron to the humblest orphan, was grief -stricken
at the news which conveyed the death of the founder of the
Orphanage, who took the greatest pride in its success, and
who was ever solicitous for the welfare of the orphans.
Irrespective of creed, the people of South London intimated,
in one form or other, their regret for Mr. Spurgeon's death.

•• Special devotional meetings were held yesterday morn-
ing, afternoon, and evening, at the Tabernacle. At the
evening meeting, at which Dr. Fierson presided, there was

372 Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

a very large assemblage, mostly in tears ; and a large crowd
gathered outside."

Dr. Pierson made a brief, but most impressive,
address, which was in substance as follows :

"My mind has turned to the fourth chapter of St. Paul's
second epistle to Timothy, the first portion of which I have
read. It might have been spoken by your pastor, if he were
with you :o-night. His dying message might have been
these words : * For now I am ready to be offered, and the
time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the eood
fi?ht, I have finished my course, I have kept the mith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness
which the Lord shall give me at that day : and not to me
only, but to all them also who love His appearing.' After all,
our grief is a selfish thing. We look around and see the
vacant places in every direction which Mr. Spurgeon once
filled, but how little do we think of that glory of which he is
now the sharer — that ineffable, unspeakable glory, which, if
a man experienced it and came back, it would not be possi-
ble for him to describe. Almost twenty-four hours have
passed since Charles Haddon Spurgeon met his Lord and
Master face to face, and just think of the people who have
been waiting for him to come. I marvel whether since
St. Paul departed this life there has been any one of God's
saints who has entered into heaven and found so many
people there who have been led to Christ through his minis-
try. I wonder whether any saint has had such a welcome
to glory as Mr. Spurgeon had. There is no man or woman
in this house who feels this sorrow more than I, but I can-
not think of my grief altogether. I am bound to think of
your pastor's joy. Just think what a crown of glory he now
has ! He was so humble, and loved his Lord so much, that
he would not wear the crown for a moment, but would cast
it at His feet and say, ' It does not belong to me.' But
there are thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thou-
sands of jewels in that crown, and every jewel represents
a ransomed soul won by his preaching or his writings. So
let us not be selfish in our grief, but mingle with our prayers
and supplications praise to Almighty God that your beloved
pastor has been taken from the midst of suffering, and
entered into glory."

Flowers and Palms. 3 T2^

At the conclusion of this address. Dr. Pierson
invited the congregation to join him in singing
" All hail the power of Jesus' name."

A dispatch from Mentone of February ist, says:

" Mentone, February i. — The remains of the Rev. Charles
H. Spurgeon, the noted English divine, who died here last
night, are lying on the bed on which he died. The bed
around the body is almost hidden from sight by the number
of floral wreaths which have been sent by relatives, friends,
and admirers of the deceased. The features of the dead
man show not the slightest evidence of death agony. He
hoks as though he had simply fallen asleep, ana his face
bears the placid expression of one at rest from toil. The
body will be removed to-morrow to the mortuary chapel in
the cemetery. Mrs. Spurgeon is bearing up well under the
great sorrow that has come to her."

On the same date, it is added :

" The telegraph traffic is completely blocked with mes-
sages of condolence arriving from all parts of the world."

The body was embalmed and sealed up in a
leaden case which was enclosed in a beautiful cof«
fin of olive-wood, on which was inscribed the last
quotation from the Scriptures uttered by Mr.
Spurgeon to his secretary, Mr. Harrald, before his
death, the strikingly appropriate words of the
Apostle Paul, recorded in 2 Tim. iv, 7.

" I HAVE FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT, I HAVE FINISHED
M¥ COURSE, I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH."

Mrs. Spurgeon requested that, instead of flowers,
palm-branches might be brought to the funeral
service. Before the departure from Mentone, on
Thursday, February 4th, a service was held at the
Scottish Church, to which the body had been pre*
viously conveyed.

374 Last Scenes and Last Sermons,

*' Every scat in the sacred edifice was occui>ied, and a
large number of persons who were unable to obtain admit-
tance remained standing outside. The decorations inside
the church were of a very simple character. In compliance
with Mrs. Spurgeon's request, there were few floral wreaths,
but palm branches were abundantlv displayed.

" The service lasted exactly an nour, and was of a very
impressive character.**

On Monday, February 8th, when the remains
arrived at Newhaven, over fifteen hundred people,
in spite of the cold, damp morning, were assem-
bled. Prayers were offered by ministers of vari-
ous denominations, and the whole assembly joined
in singing the hymn, " Forever with the Lord."
On arriving in London :

" At the railroad station an immense crowd of people had
assembled, and saw the placing of the coffin in a plain
hearse, which was driven to the Tabernacle. So dense was
the crowd at that place that it was found necessary to take
the coffin to an adjacent park, Kennington Common, where
the masses defiled before it and impromptu services were
held, and many addresses were made by various pastors
and college officials."

Through all of Tuesday, the body was practi-
cally lying in state at the Tabernacle, in order that
friends might have ample opportunity of viewing
the remains, as they could not do during the
progress of a service. The request had been pub-
licly made, by Rev. J. A Spurgeon and the dea-
cons, and urged by Rev. Dr. Pierson, that there
should be no flowers, but that those who had con-
templated bringing floral offerings, costing in
many cases large sums of money, would, instead,
contribute the money these would cost, to the
Stock well Orphanage, which the deceased pastor

Funeral Services. 375

so tenderly cherished, and for which he pleaded In
some of the very last letters he ever wrote. Suth
an expression of regard, they felt assured, was
most in accord with what would be Mr. Spurgeon's
wish.

Almost all of Wednesday, January loth, was
occupied with memorial services, as follows :
At II A. M., a service for members of the Taberna-
cle church, and of organizations connected with
it ; at 3 p. M., for ministers of the gospel and col-
lege students only, a special invitation being sent
out to pastors who had been students at the Pas-
tors' College, and special place reserved for them ;
at 7 p. M., and again at 10.30, services for the gen-
eral public. The last service, which was in the
nature of a watch meeting, and under the conduct
of the well-known evangelists, Fullerton and
Smith, is mentioned as especially solemn and
impressive, the Tabernacle being crowded, and the
exercises continued till after midnight.

At II A. M. of Thursday, February nth, occur-
red the great funeral service at the Tabernacle,
which, it is almost needless to say, was crowded
to its utmost limit. The shops all around the
Tabernacle and on the route to the cemetery were
for the most part closed, and nearly all the build-
ings bore mourning emblems. Within the Taber-
nacle, the preacher's platform, which had so long
been Mr. Spurgeon's place of power, was heavily
draped with black. Below lay all that was mor-
tal of the great preacher in its olive-wood coffin,
which, in spite of all requests to the contrary, was

37^ Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

fairly covered with flowers. Noticeable among
the floral offerings was a wreath of roses sent by
the French Baptists. Upon the flowers lay an
open Bible, the same from which Mr. Spurgeon
had so faithfully preached the Word. Those of
Mr. Spurgeon's family who were able to be at the
time in London, members of the House of Com-
mons, the Mayor of Croydon, the Baroness Bur-
dette Coutts, and deputations from sixty religious
bodies were among those assembled. The boys
of Stockwell Orphanage sang at the opening of
the service the last hymn Mr. Spurgeon had
announced before he was taken sick :

** The sands of time are sinking.
The dawn of heaven breaks,
The summer morn I've sighed for.

The fair sweet morn awakes ;
Dark, dark hath been the midnight.

But day-spring is at hand.
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Immanuei's land.

** Oh, Christ, he is the fountain.
The deep, sweet well of love ;
The streams of earth I've tasted,

More deep I'll drink above.
There to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Immanuei's land.

•* The bride eyes not her garment.
But her dear bridegroom's face ;
I will not gaze at glory
But on my King of Grace—

Borne to his Burial. 377

Not at the crown he giveth

But on his pierced hand ;—
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Immanuel's land."

Rev. Dr. Angus delivered an impressive address,
recalling the history of the Metropolitan Taber-
nacle, and the wonderful work for good done
through and by it, with a hearty eulogy of the
departed pastor. Rev. Dr. Pierson then read a
letter from Mrs. Spurgeon, praying that the peo-
ple's faith might not fail in this hour of trials and
saying of her departed husband, " He is not here,
but is risen," and that not for one moment would
she wish him back, though dearer to her than
tongue could tell. Dr. Pierson delivered a most
eloquent memorial address, dwelling upon Mr.
Spurgeon's wide and powerful influence, and draw*
ing a striking parallel between his work and that
of John Wesley. As the coffin was taken from the
catafalque and borne down the aisle, the entire
congregation arose, and joined in singing the
hymn, "There is no night in Homeland." The
sides of the hearse in which the coffin was placed
bore the same triumphant inscription, ''I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I
have kept the faith." Forty mourning coaches
and a vast number of private carriages followed
the hearse. So, through four miles of streets where
blinds and shutters were closed, flags at half-mast
and mourning emblems everywhere displayed,
amid the solemn tolling of church-bells, past the
Stockwell Orphanage, where a raised platform.

378 Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

erected especially for the occasion and heavily
draped in black, enabled the five hundred boys
and girls to witness the last honors paid to their
benefactor, and, most touching of all, between
miles of human beings lining the sidewalks on
either side, almost all wearing some token of
mourning and watching in reverent, tearful silence,
the body of Charles H. Spurgeon was borne to its
rest, Norwood Cemetery, though none had been
admitted but by ticket, was already thronged.
Here, the Rev. Archibald G. Brown, pastor of the
East London Tabernacle, delivered a funeral ora-
tion. Rev. Dr. Pierson offered a prayer of heart-
touching tenderness and power, and the Right
Rev, Randall Thomas Davidson, Bishop of
Rochester, pronounced the benediction. After the
services, the people present formed in line, and
slowly filed before the open vault, and took their
last look upon the casket enclosing the remains
of the beloved and honored preacher of right-
eousaets^ now at rest from his earthly work.

Last Sermon in the Tabernacle. 3 j ^

THE ST A TUTE OF DA VID FOR THE SHARING
OF THE SPOIL.-^i Samuel xxx: 21-25.

A Sermon Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, June

7TH, 1 891, BY C. H. SpURGEON, AT THE METRO-
POLITAN Tabernacle, Newington ♦

THOSE who associate themselves with a leader must
share his fortunes. Six hundred men had quitted
their abodes in Judaea ; unable to endure the tyranny
of Saul, they had linked, themselves with David, and made
him to be a captain over them. They were, some of them,
the best of men, and some of them were the worst : in this,
resembling our congregations. Some of them were choice
spirits, whom David would have sought, but others were
undesirable persons, from whom he might gladly have been
free. However, be they who they may. they must rise or
fall with their leader and commander. If ne had the city
Ziklag given to him, they had a house and a home in it ;
and if Ziklag was burned with fire, their houses did not
escape. When David stood amid the smoking ruins, a pen-
niless and a wifeless man, they stood in the same condition.
This rule holds good with all of us who have joined our-
selves to Christ and His <;ause ; we must be partakers with

* We find a sermon on the text, *^ Out of weakness were made stronff,'*
extensiyely quoted as Mr. Spurgeon*s last. That sermon, however, was
*' Intended for Reading, Juneaist/' while the one here ffiven is that which
Mr. Spurfi^eon actually delivered on the morning^ of June 7th, just after
his recovery from the influenza ; it was on the very next day that he took
the chill which was the besrinningr of his protracted and at lenjfth fatal
illness (see p. 343). A touchin|( reference to his recent sickness appears
in the opening paragraph of division II. (p. 386.) In this connection,
the editor desires to express his grateful acknowledgments to Th* Indr
p4iuUnt^ Tht Examiner y and Tk4 Christian Inquirer iot valued courte-
sies; and especially for favors received from the Christian Herald^ which
has published Mr. Spurgeon*s sermons weekly for the past fourteen
years. The account of the closing scenes and of the funeral services given
in this chapter, is for the most part compiled from material tent t« us
direct from our London house, in answer to cable dispatchet.

■

380 Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

Him. I hope we are prepared to stand to this rule to-day.
If there be ridicule and reproach for the gospel of Christ,
let us be willing to be ridiculed and reproached for His
sake. Let us eladlv share with Him in his humiliation, and
never dream of shrmking. This involves a great privilege,
since they that are with Him in His humiliation shall oe
with Him in His glory. If we share His rebuke in the midst
of an evil generation, we shall also sit upon His throne, and
share His glory in the day of His appearing. Brethren, I
hope the most of us can say we are in for it, to sink or swim
with Jesus. In life or death, where He is, there will we. His
servants, be. We joyfully accept both the cross and the
crown which go with our Lord Jesus Christ : we are eager
to bear our full share of the blame, that we may partake in
His joy.

It frequently happens that when a great disaster occurs
to a band of men, a mutinv follows thereupon. However
little it may be the leader's fault, the defeated cast the blame
of the de^at upon him. If the fight is won, " it was a
soldiers' battle"; every man-at-arms claims his share of

f raise. But if the battle is lost, cashier the commander !
t was entirely his fault ; if he had been a better general he
might have won the day. This is how people talk : fairness
is out of the question. So in the great disaster of Ziklag,
when the town was burned with fire, and wives and chil-
dren were carried away captive ; then we read that they
spoke of stoning David. Why David ? Why David more
than anybody else, it is hard to see, for he was not there,
nor any one of them. They felt so vexed that it would be a
relief to stone somebody, and why not David ? Brethren, it
sometimes happens, even to the servants of Christ, that when
they fall into persecution and loss for Christ's sake, the
tempter whispers to them to throw up their profession.
" Since you have been a Christian you have had nothing but
trouble. It seems as if the dogs of hell were snapping at
your heels more than ever since you took upon you the name
of Christ. Therefore, throw it up, and leave the ways of
godliness." Vile suggestion! Mutiny against the Lord
Jesus ? Dare you do so ? Some of us cannot do so, for
when He asks us, " Will ye also go away ? " we can only
answer, "Lord, to whom should we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life." No other leader is worth following.
We must follow the Son of David. Mutiny against Him is
out of the question.

Sharing with the Leader. 38 1

*' Through floods or flames, if Tesus lead.
We'll follow where he goes.

When a dog follows a man, we may discover whether the
man is his master by seeing what happens when they come
to a turn in the road. If the creature keeps close to its
master at all turnings, it belongs to him. Every now and
then you and I come to turns in the road, and many of us
are ready, through grace, to prove our loyalty by following
Jesus even when the way is hardest. Though the tears
stand in His eyes and ours ; though we weep together till
we have no more power to weep, we will cling to Him when
the many turn aside, and witness that He hath the living
Word, and none upon earth beside. God grant us grace to
be faithful unto death !

If we thus follow our Leader and bear His reproach, the
end and issue will be glorious victory. It was a piteous
sight to see David leaving two hundred men behind him,
and^marching with his much-diminished forces after an
enemy who had gone, he scarce knew where, who might be
ten times stronger than his little band, and might slay those
who pursued them. It was a melancholy spectacle for those
left behind to see their leader a broken man, worn and
weary like themselves, hastening after the cruel Amalekite.
How very different was the scene when he came back to
the brook Besor more than a conqueror ! Do you not hear
the song of them that make merry ? A host of men in the
front are drivine vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep,
and singing as they march, " This is David's spoil I " Then
you see armed men, with David in the midst of them, all
laden with spoil, and you hear them singing yet another
song ; those that bring up the rear are shouting exultingly,
" David recovered all I David recovered all ! " They, the
worn-out ones that stayed at the brook Besor, hear the
mingled song, and join first in the one shout, and then in
the other ; singing, " That is David's spoil ! David recov*
ered all ! "

Yes, we have no doubt about the result of our warfare.
He that is faithful to Christ shall be glorified with hinu
That he will divide the spoil with the strong is never a
matter of question. " The pleasure of the Lord shall pros-
per in his hand."

The old truth by which we stand shall never be blotted
out.

382 Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

" Engraved as in eternal brass
The mighty promise shines.
Nor shall the powers of darkness rase
Those everlasting lines."

We arc certain as we live that the exiled truth shall cele-
brate its joyful return. The faith once for all delivered to
the saints may be down-trodden for a season ; but rejoice
not over us, O our adversaries : though we fall we shall
rise again! Wherefore we patiently hope, and quietly wait,
and calmly believe. We drink of the brook Besor by the
way and lift up our heads.

This morning I want to utter God-given words of com-
fort to those ^o are faint and weary in the Lord's army.
May the divine Comforter make them so !

I. I shall begin by saying, first, that faint ones OCCUR
EVEN IN THE ARMY OF OUR KiNG. Among the very
elect of David's army — heroes who were men of war from
their youth up — ^there were hands that hung down, and
feeble knees tnat needed to be confirmed. There are such
in Christ's army at most seasons. We have among us sol-
diers whose faith is real, and whose lov^ is burning ; and
yet, for all that, just now their strength is weakened in the
way, and they are so depressed in spirit, that they are
obliged to stop behind with the baggaee.

Possibly some of these weary ones had grown faint be-
cause M<K had been a good deal perplexed, David had so
wrongfully entangled himself with the Philistine king, that
he felt bound to go with /.chish to fight against Israel. I
dare say these men said to themselves, " How will this end?
Will David really lead us to battle against Saul ? When he
could have killed him in the cave he would not, but declared
that he would not lift up his hand against the Lord's
anointed ; will he now take us to fight against the anointed
of God ? This David, who was so great an enemy of Phit-
istia, and slew their champion, will he war on their bebfi^? "
They were perplexed with their leader's movements. I do
not (enow whether you agree with me, but I fi«d that half-
an-hour's perplexity takes more out of a man than a month's
labor. When you cannot see your bearings, and know not
what to do, it is most trying. When to be true to God it
seems that you must break faith with man, and when to
fuTftn your unhappy covenant with evil would nvake you
false to your Christian professions, things are perplexing.

Reasons for Weariness. 383

If you do not walk carefully, you can easily get into a snarl.
If Christians walk in a straight line» it is comparativ^y easy
going, for it is easy to find your way along a straight road ;
but when good men take to the new cut, that by-path across
the meadow, then they often get into ditches that are not m
the map, and fall into thickets and sloughs that they never
reckoned upon. Then is the time for heart-sickness to
come on. These warriors may very well have been per-
plexed ; and perhaps they feared that God was against them
and that now their cause would be put to shame ; and when
they came to Ziklag, and found it burned with fijre« the per-
plexity of their minds added intense bitterness to their sor-
row, and they felt bowed into the dust. They did not pre-
tend to be faint, but they were really so ; for the nind can
soon act upon the body, and the body fails sadly when the
spirits are worried with questions and fears. This is one
reason why certain of our Lord's loyal-hearted ones are on
the sick list, and must keep in the trenches for a while.

Perhaps, also, the pace was killing to these men. They
made forced marches for three days from the city of Achish
to Ziklag. These men could do a good day's march with
anybody; but they could not foot it at the double-quick
march all day long. There are a g^eat many Christians of
that sort — good, staying men who can keep on under ordi-
nary pressure, doing daily duty well, and resisting ordinary
temptations bravely ; but at a push they fare badly : who
among us does not ? To us there may come multiplied
labors, and we faint because our strength is small.

Worst of all, their grief came in just then. Their wives
were gone. Although, as it turned out, they were neither
killed nor otherwise harmed ; yet they could not tell this,
and they feared the worse. For a man to know that his
wife is in the hands of robbers, and that he may never sec
her again, is no small trouble. Their sons and daughters
also were gone : no prattlers climbed their father's knee»
no gentle daughters came forth to bid them " Welcome
home." Their homes were still b'jming, their goods were
consumed, and they lifted up their voice and wept: is it at
all wonderful that some of them were faint after performing
that doleful miserere f Where would you be it you went
home this morning, and found your home burned, and your
family gone, you knew not where ? I know many Christians
who get very faint under extraordinary troubles. They
should not, but they do. We have reason to thank God

384 Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

that no temptation has happened to us but such as is com-
mon to men ; and yet it may not seem so ; but we may feel
as if we were specially tried, like Job. Messenger after
messenger has brought us evil tidings, and our hearts are
not fixed on the Lord as they ought to be. To those who
are faint through grief I apeak just now. You may be this,
and yet you may be a true follower of the Lamb ; and as
God has promised to bring you out of your troubles, he will
surely keep his word. Remember, he has never promised
that you shall have no sorrows, but that he will deliver you
out of them all. Ask yon saints in heaven ! Ask those to
step out of the shining ranks who came thither without
triad. Will one of the leaders of the shining host give the
word of command that he shall step forward who has
washed his robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb, but who never knew what affliction meant while
here below ? No one stirs in all that white-robed host.
Does not one come forward ? Must we wait here forever
without response ? See I instead of anyone stirring from
their ranks, I hear a voice that says, •* These are they which
came out of great tribulation." AH of them have known,
not only tribulation, but great tribulation. One promise of
the New Testament is surely fulfilled before our eyes—" In
the world ye shall have tribulation." When trouble came
so pressingly on David's men they felt their weakness and
needed to nalt at the margin of the brook.

Perhaps, also, the force of the torrent was too much for
them. As 1 have told you, in all probability the brook
Besor was only a hollow place, which in ordinary times was
almost dry ; but in a season of great rain it filled suddenly
with a rushing, muddy stream, against which only strong
men could stand. These men might have kept on upon
dry land, but the current was too fierce for them, and they
feared that it would carry them off their feet and drown
them. Therefore, David gave them leave to stop there and
guard the stuff. Many there are of our Lord's servants
who stop short of certain onerous service ; they are not
called to do what their stronger comrades undertake with
joy. They can do something, but they fail to do more ; they
can also bear trials, but they are unable to bear more ; they
faint because they have not yet come to fulness of growtn
in grace. Their hearts are right in the sight of God, but
they are not in condition to surmount some peculiar diffi-
cult. You must not overdrive them, for they are the feeble

Faint, Yet Pursuing, 3&5

of the flock. Many are too faint for needful controversy. I
have found a great many of that sort about lately : the
tiiith is very important, but they love peace. It is Quite
necessary that certain o us should stand up for the faith
once delivered to the saints ; but they are not up to the
mark for it They cannot bear to differ from their fellows ;
and they hold their tongues rather than contend for the
truth. There are true hearts that» nevertheless, cannot
defend the gospel. They wish well to the champions ; but
they seek the rear rank for themselves. And some cannot
adv^ance any further with regard to knowledge ; they know
the fundamentals, and feel as if they could master nothing
morew It is a great blessing that they know the gospel, and
feel that it will save them ; but the glorious mysteries of the
everlasting covenant, of the sovereignty of God, of his eter-
nal love and distinguishing grace, they cannot compass-^
these are a brook Besor which as yet they cannot swim. It
would do them a world of good if they could venture in ;
but, still, they are not to be tempted into these blesse4
deeps. To hear of these things rather wearies them than
instructs them : they have not strength enough of mind for
the d^ep things of God. I would have every ChrisUap wi^sl^
to know all that he can know of revealed truth. Somebody
whispers that the secret things belong not to us. You may-
be sure you will never know them if they are secret ; bi;i^
all that is revealed you ought to know, for these things
belong to you and to your children. Take care you know
what the Holy Ghost teaches. Do not give way to a (aint-
hiearted ignorance, lest you be great losers thereby. That
which is nt food for babes should not be enough for young
men and fathers : we should eat strong meat, and leave
milk to the little ones.

Yet these fainting ones were, after all, in David's army.
Their names were in their Captain's Register as nMich aa
the names of the strong. And they did not desjcrt the
colors. They had the same captain as the stoutest-hearted
men in the whole regiment; they could call David
•* Master " and " Lord " as truly as the most lion-like man
amongst them. They were in for the same dangers ; for if
the men in front had been beaten and had retreated, the
enemy would have fallen on those who guarded the stuff.
If the Amalekites had slain the four hundred, they would
have made short work of the two hundred. They had work
to do as needful as that of the others. Though they had

386 Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

not to fight, they had to take care of the stuff ; and this
eased the minds of the fighting men. I will be bound to
say it was a great trial to them not to be allowed to march
mto the fight. For a brave man to see the troops go past
him, and hear the last footfall of his comrades, must have
been sickening. Who could pleasantly say, " I am left out
of it. There is a glorious day coming, and I shall be away.
I shall, until I die, think myself accursed I was not there,
and hold my manhood cheap that I fought not with them
on that day " ? It is hard to brave men to be confined to
hospital, and have no drive at the foe. The weary one
wishes he could be to the front, where his Captain's eye
would be upon him. He pants to smite down the enemies,
and win back the spoil for his comrades.

Enough of this. I will only repeat my first point : faint-
ing ones do occur even in the army of our King.

II. Secondly, these fainting ones rejoice to see
THEIR LEADER RETURN. Do vou see, when David went
back, they went to meet him, and the people that were with
him. I feel very much like this myself. That was one reason
why I took this text. I felt, after my illness, most happy to
come forth and meet my Lord in public. I hoped he would
be here ; and so he is. I am glad also to meet with you, my
comrades. We are still spared for the war. Though laid
aside a while, we are again among our brethren. Thank
God f It is a great joy to meet you. I am sorry to miss so
many of our church-members who are laid aside by this sick-
ness ; but it IS a choice blessing to meet so many of our
kindred in Christ. We are never happier than when we are
in fellowship with one another and with our Lord.

David saluted the stay-at- homes. Oh, that he might
salute each one of us this morning, especially those who
have been laid aside ! Our King's salutations are wonder-
ful for their heartiness, He uses no empty compliments
nor vain words. Every syllable from his lips is a benedic-
tion. Every glance of his eye is an inspiration. When the

The LecuUr's Return. 387

King himself comes near, it is always a feast-day to us! It
ig a high day and a holiday, even with the faintest of us,
when we hear his voice. So they went to meet David, and
he came to meet them, and there was great joy. Yes, I
venture to mend that, and say there is great joy among us
now. Glory be to His holy name, the Lord is here ! We
see him, and rejoice with joy unspeakable,

David* s courtesy was as free as it was true. Possibly
those who remained behind were half afraid that their leader
might say, " See here, you idle fellows, what we have been
doing for you ! " No ; he saluted them, but did not scold
them. Perhaps they thought, " He will upbraid us that we
did not manage to creep into the fray." But no ; " He giveth
liberally, and upbraideth not." He speaks not a word of
upbraiding, for his heart pities them, and therefore he salutes
them — ** My brethren, God has been gracious to us. All
hail ! " David would have them rejoice together ; and give
praise unto the most High. He will not dash their cup with
a drop of bitter. Oh, for a salutation from our Lord at this
good hour ! When Christ comes into a company His pres-
ence makes a heavenly difference. Have you never seen an
assembly listening to an orator, all unmoved and stolid ?
Suddenly the Holy Ghost has fallen on the speaker, and the
King Himself has been visibly set forth among them in the
midst of the assembly, and all have felt as if they could leap
to their feet and cry, " Hallelujah, hallelujah ! " Then hearts
beat fast, and souls leap high ; for where Jesus is found His
presence fills the place with delight. Now, then, you weary
ones, if you be here, any of you, may you rejoice as you now
meet your Leader, and your Leader reveals Himself to you !
If no one else has a sonnet, I have mine. He must. He shall
be praised. " Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ ! All
heaven and earth adores Thee. Thou shalt reign for ever
and ever."

HL Thirdly, faint ones have their leader for
THEIR advocate. Listen to those foul-mouthed men of
Belial, these wicked men : how they rail against those whom
God has afiMcted ! They came up to David and began
blustering — " These weaklings who were not in the fight,
they shall not share the spoil. Let them take their wives
anci children and begone." These fellows spoke with loud,
harsh voices, and greatly grieved the feebler ones. Who
was to speak up K>r them? Their leader became their
advocate.

38S Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

First, do yoa notice, hi pltads their unity f The follow*
ers of the son of Jesse are one and inseparable. David said,
^ Ye shall not do so, mv brethren, with that which the Lord
hath g^ven us, who hath preserved us" " We are all one,"
says David. " God has given the spoil, not to you alone,
but to us all. We are all one company of brothers." The
unity of saints is the consolation of Uie feeble. Brethren,
our Lord Jesus Christ would refresh His wearied ones by
the reflection that we are all one in Him. I mav be the
foot, all dusty and travel-stained ; and you may be the hand,
holding forth some precious gem ; but we are still one body.
Yonder friend is the brow of holy thought, and another is
the lip of persuasion, and a third is the eye of watchfulness ;
but still we are one body in Christ. We cannot do, any-
one of us, without his fellow ; each one ministers to the
benefit of all. The eye cannot say to the hand, " I have no
need of thee." We are all one in Christ Jesus* Surely this
ought to comfort those of you who, by reason of feebleness*
are made to feel as if you were very inferior members oithe
body : you are still living members of the mystical body of
Jesus Christ your Lord, and let this suffice you. One life
is ours, one love is ours, one heaven shall be ours in our one
Saviour.

David further pleaded free grace, for he said to them,
" Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Loard
hath given us." He did not say, " With that which you
have conquered, and fairly earned in battle," but " that
which the Lord hath given us." Look upon every blessing
as a gift, and you will not think anyone snut out from it, not
even yourselL The gift of God is eternal life ; why should
you not have it ? Deny not to anyone of your brethren any
comfort of the covenant of grace. Think not of any man,
** He ought not to have so much joy." It is all of keegp-ace;
and if free grace rules the hour, the least may have it as well
as the greatest. If it is all of free grace, then, my poor
struggling brother, who can hardly feel assured that you arc.
sav^, yet if you are a believer, you may claim every bless-
ing of the Lord's gracious covenant. God freely gives to
you as well as to me the provisions of His love ; therefore,
let us be glad, and not judge ourselves after the manner of
the law of condemnation.

Then he pleaded their needfulness. He said, " These men
abided by trie stuff." No army fights well when its camp
is unguarded. It is a great thing for a church to know that

The Law of Reward. 389

its stores are well guarded by a pra3ingband. While some
of us are teaching in the school or preaching in the street^
we have great comfort in knowing that a certain number of
our friends are praying for us. To me it is a boundless
solace that I live in the prayers of thousands. I will not
say which does the better service — the man that preaches,
or the man that prays ; but I know this, that we can do bet-
ter without the voice that preaches than without the heart
that prays. The petitions of our bed-ridden sisters are the
wealth of the church. The kind of service which seems
most commonplace among men is often the most precious
unto God. Therefore, as for those who cannot come into
the front places of warfare, deny them not seats of honor,
since, after all, they may be doing the greater good. Re-
member the statute, " They shall part alike."

Notice that David adds to his pleading a statute^ like
to think of our great Commander, the Lord Jesus, making
statutes. For whom does He legislate ? For the first three r
For the captains of thousands ? No. He makes a statute
for those who are forced to stay at home because they are
faint. Blessed be the name of our Lord Jesus, He is always
looking to the interests of those who have nobody else to
care for them ! If you can look after your own cause, you
may do so ; but if you are so happy as to be weak in your-
self, you shall be strong in Christ. Those who have Christ
to care for them are better off than if they took care of them-
selves. He that can leave his concerns with Christ has left
them in good hands. Vain is the help of self, but all-suffi-
cient is the aid of Jesus.

To sum up what I mean : I believe the Lord will give to
the sick and the suffering an equal reward with the active
and energetic, if they are eoually concerned for His glory.
The Lord will also make a fair division to the obscure and
unlaiown as well as to the renowned and honored, if they
are equally earnest. Oh, tell me not that she who rears her
boy for Christ shall miss her reward from Him by whom an
apostle is recompensed ! Tell me not that the woman who
80 conducts her household that her servants come to fear
God, shall be forgotten in the day when the " Well dones "
are distributed to the faithful ! Homely and unnoticed ser-
vice shall have honor as surelv as that with which the world
is ringing.

Some of God's people are illiterate, and they have but
little native talent. But if they serve the Lord as best they

390 Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

can, with all their heart, they shall take their part with those
that are the most learned and accomplished. He that is
faithful over a little shall have his full reward of grace. It
is accepted according to what a man hath. We may pos-
sess no more than two mites, but if we cast them into the
treasury, our Lord will think much of them.

Some dear servants of God seem always to be defeated.
They seem sent to a people whose hearts are made gross
and their ears dull of hearing. Still, if they have truthfully
proclaimed the Word of the Lord, their reward will not be
according to their apparent success, but according to their
fidelity.

Some saints are constitutionally depressed and sad ; they
are like certain lovely ferns, which gprow best under a con-
stant drip. Well, well, the Lord will gather these beautiful
ferns of the shade as well as the roses of the sun ; they shall
share His notice as much as the blazing sunflowers, and the
saddest shall rejoice with the gladdest. You Little-Faiths,
you Despondencies, you Much-Afraids, you Feeble-Minds,
you that sigh more than you sing, you that would but can-
not, you that have a great heart for holiness, but feel beaten
back in your struggles, the Lord shall give you His love, His
grace his favor, as surely as He gives it to those who can do
great things in His name. Certain of you have but a scant
experience of the higher joys and deeper insights of the
kingdom, and it may be that you are in part faulty because
you are so backward ; and yet, if true to your Lord, your
mfirmities shall not be reckoned as iniquities. If lawfully
detained from the field of active labor this statute stands
fast for ever, for you as well as for others : " As his part is
that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tar-
rieth by the stuff : they shall part alike."

IV. Now, fourthly, FAINT ONES FIND JeSUS TO BE

THEIR GOOD LORD IN EVERY WAY. Was he not a good
Lord when he first took us into his army of salvation ?
What a curious crew they were that enlisted under David !
" Every one that was in debt, and every one that was dis-
contented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became a
captain over them." He was a captain of ragamuffins ; but
our Lord had not a better following. I was a poor wretch
when I came to Christ ; and I should not wonder if that
word is near enough to the truth to describe you, I was a
good-for-nothing, over head and ears in debt, and without
a penny to pay, I came to Jesus so utterly down at the

'Let Us Exalt Our Captain. 391

heel, that no one else would have owned me. He might
well have said, — ^" No, I have not come to this — to march at
the head of such vagrant b'*ggars as these." Yet He
received us graciously, according to His promise, " Him that
Cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Since then, how
graciously has He borne with us ! We are not among those
self-praising ones who have wrought such wonders of holi-
ness ; but we mourn our shortcomings and transgressions ,
and yet He hath not cast away the people whom He did fore-
know. When we look back upon our character as soldiers
of Christ, we feel ashamed of ourselves, and amazed at His
grace. If anybody had told us that we should have been
such poor soldiers as we have been, we should not have
believed them. We do not excuse ourselves: we are
greatly grieved to have been such failures. Yet our gra-
cious Lord has never turned us out of the ranks. He might
have drummed us out of the regiment long ago ; but here
we are still, enrolled, upheld, and smiled upon. What a
Captain we have ! None can compare with Him for gentle-
ness. He still owns us, and He declares, " They shall be
mine in that day when I make up my jewels."

Brethren, let us exalt the name of our Captain. There is
none like Him. We have been in distress since then : and
He has been in distress with us. Ziklag smoked for Him as
well as for us. In all their affliction He was afflicted. Have
you not found it so ? When we have come to a great diffi-
culty like the brook Besor He has gently eased His com-
mands, and has not required of us what we were unable to
yield. He has not made some of you pastors and teachers,
for you could not have borne the burden. He hath abounded
towards us in all wisdom and prudence. He has suited the
the march to the foot, or the foot to the march. How
sweetly He has smiled on what we have done I Have you
not wondered to see how He has accepted your works and
your prayers ? You have been startled to find that He did
answer your feeble petitions. When you have spoken a
word for Jesus, and God has blessed it, why you have
thought, " Surely there is a mistake about this ! How could
my feeble word have a blessing on it ?" Beloved, we follow
a noble Prince. Jesus is the chief among ten thousand for
tenderness as well as for everything else. How tenderly
considerate He is ! How gentle and generous ! He has
never said a stinging word to us ever since we knew him.
He is that riches which has no sorrow added to it. He has

30« Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

feboked us ; but His rebukes have been like an excellent oil*
which has never broken our heads. When we have left
Him, He has turned and looked upon us, and so ll« has cut
ns to the quick ; but He has never wounded us with any
fword except that which cometh out of His mouth, whose
edge is love. When He goes away from us, as David did
from those two hundred who could not keep up with him,
yet He always comes back again in mercy, and salutes us with
tavor. We wonder to ourselves that we did not hold htm,
and TOW that we would never let him go ; but we wonder
still more that He should come back so speedily, so heartily,
leaping over the mountains, hastening like a roe or a younjg^
hart over the hills of division. Lo ! He has come to us. 'He
has come to us, and He makes our hearts glad at His coih-
ing. Let us indulge our hearts this morning as we take oiir
^are in the precious spoil of His immeasurable love. He
Ipves the great and the small with like love ; let us be joyful
all round.

There is one choice thing which He will do, that should
make us love Him beyond measure. David, after a while,
went up to Hebron to be made king over Judah. Shall I
read vou in the second book of Samuel, the second chapter,
*and the third verse ? " And his men that were with him "
(and among the rest these weak ones who could not paSs
over the brook Besor), " and his men that were with hfm
did David bring up, every man with his household : and
they dwelt in the cities of Hebron." Yes, He will bring me
up, even me ! He will bring you up, you faintest and wedc-
est of the band. There is a Hebron wherein Jesus reigns
as anointed King, and He will not be there and leave one
of us behind. There is no kingdom for Jesus without His
brethren, no heaven for Jesus without His disciples. His
^poor people who have been with Him in faintness and
weariness shall be with Him in glory, and their households.
Hold on to that additional blessing. I pray you, hold on to
it. Do not let slip that word — ** and their households** 1
fear we often lose a blessing on our household through clip-
ping the promise. When the jailer asked what he must do
to be saved, what was the answer? " Believe on the Lbrjd
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." You have heslt^
that answer hundreds of times, have you not ? Did you ^V€r
hear the rest of it ? Why do preachers and quoters snip b!f
comers from«fospel promises? It runs thus; " Thou^halt
be saved, and thy house" Lay hold of that bleSsed 6nlarjfe<'

£very Man with his Household. 393

ment of gp'ace, " and thy house." Why leave out the wives
and the children ? Will you let the Amalekites have them ?
Do not be satisfied without household salvation. L^ us
plead this word of the Lord this morning : O thou blessed
David, whom we have desired to follow, who hast helped us
so graciously even unto this day, >«^hen thou art in thy king-
dom graciously remember us, and let it be said of us, ''and
David went up thither, and his men that were with him
David brought up (they did not go up of themselves) every
man with his household ; and they dwelt in the cities of
Hebron ; " "Every man with his ^unaekold" I commend
that word to your careful notice. Fathers, have you yet
seen your children saved ? Mothers, are all those daughters
brought in yet ? Never cease to pray until it is so, for this
is the crown of it all, "Every man with his household."

What I have to say lastly is this: how greatly I desire
that you who are not yet enlisted in my Lord's band would
come to Him because you see what a kind and gracious
Lord He is ! Young men, if you could see our Captain, you
would down on your knees and beg Him to let you enter the
ranks of those who follow Him. It is heaven to serve Jesus.
I am a recruiting sergeant, and I would fain find a few
recruits at this moment. Every man must serve somebody :
^e have no choice as to that fact. Those who have no
master are slaves to themselves. Depend upon it, you will
either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the Saviour. You
will find sin, self, Satan, and the world to be hard masters ;
but if you wear the livery of Christ, you will find Him so
meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your
^ouls. He is the most magnanimous of captains. There
ticvcr Was His like among the choicest of princes. He is
always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When
the wind blows cold He always takes the bleak side of the
hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on His shoul-
ders. If He bids us carry a burden. He carries it also. If
there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and ten-
der, yea lavish and superabundant in love, you always find
it in Him. These forty years and more have I served Him,
blessed be His name I and I have had nothing but love from
'Him. I would be glad to continue yet another forty years
in the same dear service here below if so it pleased Him.
^His service is Kfe, peace, joy. Oh, that jrou would enter on
'it at once ! God help you to enlist under the baj*nisr of
^)estte even this day ! Amen.

394 Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

Thi Last Sermon.

According to The Sward and The Trowel^ Mr.
Spurgeon delivered two addresses to the friends
assembled at Mentone— one on the last evening of
1S91 by way of retrospect, and the other on the
first morning of the present year by way of pros-
pect. Both discourses were delivered sitting, and
the following is that for the New Year :

" Passing^ at this hour over the threshold of the New
Year, wc fook forward, and what do we see ? Cou4d we
procure a telescope which would enable us to see to the
end of the year, should we be wise to use it ? I think not.
We know nothing of the events which lie before us — of
life or death to ourselves or to our friends, or of changes of
position, or of sickness or health. What a mercy that these
things are hidden from us ! If we foresaw our best bless-
ings, they would lose their freshness and sweetness while
we impatiently waited for them. Anticipation would sour
into weariness, and familiarity would breed contempt. If
wc could forsee our troubles, we should worry ourselves
about them long before they came, and in that fretfulness
we should miss the joy of our present blessings. Great
mercy has hung up a veil between us and the future ; and
there let it hang!

" Still, all is not concealed. Some things we clearly see.
I say, ' we '; but I mean those whose eyes have been
opened, for it is not everyone who can see in the truest
sense. A lady said to Mr. Turner, ' I have often looked
upon that prospect, but I hare never seen what you have
put into your picture.' The great artist simply replied,
' Don't y«u wish you could see it ?' Looking into the future
with the eye of faith, believers can see much that is hidden
from those who have no faith. Let me tell you, in a few
words, what I see as I look into the new year.

" I see a pathway made from this Jan. i, 1892, to Jan. i,
1893. I see a highway cast up by the foreknowledge and
predesjtination of God. Nothing of the future is left to
chance ; nay, not the falling of a sparrow, nor the losing of
a hair is left to haphazard ; but all the events of life are
arranged and appointed. Not only is every turn in th«

The Way and the Guide. 395

rcMul marked in the dirine map, but every stone on the road,
and every drop of morning dew or evening mist that falls
upon the grass which grows at the roadside. We are not
to cross a trackless Hesert ; the Lord has ordainea our path
In His infallible wis^ m and infinite love. 'The steps of a
eood man are ordered by the Lord ; and he delighteth in
his way.'

" I see» next, a Guide provided, as our companion along
the way. To Him we gladly say, * Thou shalt guide me
with Thy counsel.' He is waiting to go with us through
every portion of the road. * The Lord, He it is that doth
go before thee ; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee*
We are not left to pass through life as though it were a lone
wilderness, a place of dragons and owls ; for Jesus says» * I
will not leave you comfortless ; I will come to you.'

"Though we should lose father and mother, and the
dearest friends, there is One who wears our nature, who
will never quit our side. One like unto the Son of Man is
still treading the life-ways of believing hearts, and each
true believer cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon
the Beloved. We feel the presence of the Lord Jesus even
now, in this room, where two or three are gathered in His
name, and I trust we shall feel it through all the months of
the year, whether it be the time of the sin^ng of birds, or
the season of ripe fruits, or the dark months when the clods
are frozen into iron. In this Riviera we ought the more
readily to realise our Lord's presence, because the country
is so like ' Thy land, O Immanuel ! ' Here is the land of oil-
olive, and of ngs, and of the clusters of Eshcol. By such a
blue sea He walked, and up such rocky hills He climbed.
But, whether here or elsewhere, let us look for Him to abide
with us, to make this year truly to be ' a year of our Lord.*

" Besides the way and the Guide, I perceive very clearly,
by the eye of faith, strength for the jaurmy prcviiUd,
Throughout the whole distance of the year, we shall find
halting-places, where we may rest and take refreshment,
and then go on our way singing, ' He restoreth my soul.*
We shall have strength enough, but none to spare ; and that
strength will come when it is needed, and not before.
When saints imagine that they have strength to spare, they
turn sinners, and are apt to have their locks shorn by the
Philistines. The Lord of the way will find the pilgrims with
sufficient spending-money for the road; but He may not
think it wise to burdea them with superfluous funds.

39^ Last Scenes and Last Sermons.

"God all-sufficient will not fail those who trust Him.
When we come to the place for shouldering the burden, we
shall reach the place for receiving the strength. U it pleases
Ihe Lord to multiply our troubles from one to ten, He will
increase our strength in the same proportion. To each
belkver the Lord still says, 'As thy days, so shall thy strength
be.' You do not yet feel that you have grace to die with :
what of that ? You are not yet dying. While you have yet
to deal with the business and duty of life, look to God for
the grace which these require ; and when life is ebbing out,
and your only thought is about landing on the eternal shore,
then look to God your Saviour for dying grace in dyine
moments. We may expect an inrush of divine strength
when human stren^h is failing, and a daily impartation of
energy as daily need requires. Our lamps shall be trimmed
as long as they shall need to burn. Let not our present
weakness tempt us to limit the Holy One of Israel. There
is a hospice on every pass over the Alps of life, and a bridge
across every river of^ trial, which crosses our way to the
Celestial Qty. Holy angels are as numerous to guard us as
fallen ones to tempt us. We shall never have a need for
which our gracious Father has furnished no supply.

" I see, most plainly, a Power overruling all things which
occur in the way we tread. I see an alembic in which all
thinfs are transformed. 'All things work together for
good to them that love God, to tbem that are the called
according to His purpose.' I see a wonder-working hand
which turns for us the swords of disease into the plough-
shares of correction, and the spears of trial into the prun-
mg*hooks of discipline. By this divine skill, bitters are
made sweet, and poisons turned to medicines. ' Nothing
d^all bv any means harm you,' is a promise too strong for
feeble faith ; but full assurance finds it true. Since God is
for us, who can be gainst us ? What a joy to see Jdiovah
Himself as our banner, and God himself with us as our
Captain ? Forward then into the New Year, ' for there shall
no evil befall you.'

"One thing more, and this is the brightness itself: this
year we trust we shall see God glorified by us and in us.
If we realize our chief end, we reach our highest enjoyment.
It is the delight of the renewed heart to think that God can
get glory out of such poor creatures as we are. 'God is
fight.' We cannot aid to His brightness, but we may act
as reflectors, which, though they havefno fight ol their «own»

Into the Holy of Holies. 397

yet, when the sun shines upon them, reflect His beams, and
send them where,without such reflection, they might not have
come. When the Lord shines upon us, we will cast that light
upon dark places, and make those who sit in the shadow of
death to rejoice in Jesus our Lord. We hope that God has
been in some measure glorifled in some of us during the past
year, but we trust He will be glorified by us far more in the
year which now begins. We will be content to glorify God
either actively or passively. We would have it so happen that,
when our life's history is written, whoever reads it will not
think of us as ' self-made men,' but as the handiwork of God,
in whom His grace is magnified. Not in us may men see
the clay, but the Potter's hand. They said of one, * He is a
fine preacher ' ; but of another they said, • We never notice
how he preaches, but we feel that God is great.' We wish
our whole life to be a sacrifice ; an altar of incense contin-
ually smoking with sweet perfume unto the Most High.
Oh, to be borne through the year on the wings of praise to
God ; to mount from year to year, and raise at each ascent
a loftier and yet lowlier song unto the God of our life ! The
vista of a praiseful life will never close, but continue through-
out eternity. From psalm to psalm, from hallelujah to
hallelujah, we will ascend the hill of the Lord, until we
come into the holiest of all, where, with veiled faces, we
will bow before the Divine Majesty in the bliss of endless
adoration. Throughout this year may the Lord be with you I
Amtii,"

TJtJtr^ 1986.

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